Romola Garai is ‘magnetic’ in updated Ibsen
Almeida Theatre
The much anticipated update by Anya Reiss of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was received with mixed reviews by the critics. Some thought it ‘an impressively incisive, white-knuckle engagement with contemporary anxieties’ (Time Out). Others though the relocation to a modern household with banker husband and ‘yummy mummy’ was ‘built on sand’ (Telegraph). All (bar one) agreed that Romola Garai‘s performance as Nora was ‘stellar’ (Independent).
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Tom Wicker for The Stage declared: ‘Garai is magnetically good as Nora, peeling back a sharp-edged brittleness that veers into monstrosity at times to reveal the damage and desperation beneath the surface gloss.’ He noted: ‘One of the most compelling aspects of this play is how nearly everyone, including Torvald, is corrupted by status, while engaging in the mental gymnastics of viewing themselves as the victim of the story.’
The Standard‘s Nick Curtis, too, was taken with the star: ‘Garai, an actress of great poise and focus, is here all a-jitter. Her Nora is fretful, nervy, prone to blurting out unwary truths and possessed of a billowy but self-conscious sensuality. It’s a wonderfully deep, layered performance and in the final speech where Nora is revealed to herself, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her.’ About the director, he commented: ‘Hill-Gibbins likes to keep his cast mostly barefoot and off-balance. He’s matured from a shock-tactic showman into a director of great perception, with a particular flair for awkward atmospheres.’ He ended with a thought on the ending: ‘the concluding showdown between Nora and Torvald is brutally compelling and the final image is a devastatingly powerful one.’
Regarding the adaptation, Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski explained: ‘Structurally, it’s a fairly faithful update of Ibsen’s original. But at the points where it needs to be updated – the original plot revolves around the illegality of women taking out bank loans – Reiss’s updates aren’t just a modish reskinning but an impressively incisive, white-knuckle engagement with contemporary anxieties.’ Of the star, he noted: ‘Garai marinates every line delivery, every gesture in compelling neuroticism: it’s entirely gripping, the 90-minute first half flying by.’
Rachel Halliburton for The Times was pleased with the adaptation: ‘it’s exhilarating to see this update sharpen the text’s incisors with cuttingly contemporary moral dilemmas.’ Romola Garai, she said, ‘delivers another riveting performance’.
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton agreed: ‘the adaptation, though radical, is both scintillating and intelligent, and gives Romola Garai a glorious opportunity to show once more just what a subtle and fascinating actress she is.’ She gave more detail: ‘Reiss’s writing is smart and sweary, entirely convincing in its depiction of Nora as a spoilt “yummy mummy”, who requires others to provide validation for her actions.’ She added a warning: ‘Controversially, Reiss veers away from Ibsen’s famous ending. It’s interesting, but it is also a rare false note in a clever and absorbing rethinking.’
3 stars ⭑⭑⭑
Anya Ryan for LondonTheatre disagreed about the ending: ‘It is a reimagining that might have Ibsen turning in his grave, yet it feels like a powerful, conflicting closing image. Beyond this, Reiss keeps A Doll’s House largely intact. Indeed, it is remarkable that a play approaching its 150th anniversary continues to feel so resonant.’
The Independent’s Alice Saville, while complimenting ‘stellar’ Romola Garai, had some stern advice for Anya Reiss: ‘Joe Hill-Gibbins’s staging is provocative and fun, without bringing out the emotional depth of a story that feels like it’s torn between honouring the structure of A Doll’s House and demolishing it entirely. We’re in an era where playwrights are encouraged to toy with sellable existing texts instead of making new ones – maybe it’s time Reiss got some characters all of her own to play with.’
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar’s opinion of the adaptation fell in the middle: ‘Anya Reiss does a heroic job of reimagining this story for modern times, and half pulls it off.’ She explained: ‘As an adaptation, it is inspired in its ideas’. However, ‘Her dream of feminist self-realisation gets slightly lost in the mix.’ There are consequences, she said: ‘There is some excellent acting from the accomplished cast to smooth over the stiffer bits – so much so that you can see the effort and art of it. The roles feel performed by them and maybe this is the point – the performance of marital roles, the concealment of true selves – but it brings awkwardness.’
The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish had a similar view: ‘Romola Garai transfixes beautifully as the desperate housewife, but Anya Reiss’s modernised A Doll’s House is a halfway house; what begins forcefully, fails to land fully.’ He concluded: ‘There’s a crudely topical allusion to war in the Middle East that lets Tom Mothersdale’s initially likeable, suddenly intemperate and finally implausible Torvald off the hook. Nora speaks her “truth” to a mere type; decent points are made but lack dramatic weight. As for the famous, climactic door-slamming departure, there’s a twist in the tale here, too. Some may judge it richly ambiguous; I found it a disappointing cop-out that robs Garai of her big moment and suggests Reiss’s rethink, like Nora’s life, has rather been built on sand.’
2 stars ⭑⭑
Gary Naylor reviewing for BroadwayWorld had a dreadful time: ‘Adapter, Anya Reiss and director, Joe Hill-Gibbins, update the Norwegian’s text with swear words (the baddest ones too!!!) and Ubers that turn up within two minutes on Christmas Eve. Far from making the play relevant for 2026, it reminded me more of the satires of Yuppie culture that Channel Four rejoiced in back in the 80s. But this is no Serious Money.’ He proceeded to demolish many aspects of the story and characters including Romola Garai’s Nora: ‘It was all so gauche that, in the second act, I could only think of Truly Scrumptious “turning around on a music box that’s wound by a key”, which undercut the vibe somewhat.’
Critics’ average rating 3.4⭑
A Doll’s House can be seen at the Almeida Theatre until 23 May 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.
If you’ve seen Romola Garai in A Doll’s House, please leave your review and/or rating below
Four of us attended this play and discussed it at length afterwards. Is that some achievement for the writer? I think not as all our discussion was on our disappointment with its clichéd high-finance setting, on Nora’s central overwrought character (but we liked Garai’s performance) and on the limply written and miscast male roles. I am surprised some reviewers were so impressed and wonder why the Almeida bothered. Is it just a vehicle for Garai re-treading The Years? A grab for the spotlight on the BBCtv’s ‘Industry’? A new view of this wife’s stifling marriage? Or as a re-vamp on that famous feminist door-slamming end? Well, writer Anya Reiss botched it, left the door unopened, and left us all unmoved. Anyone thinking of doing ‘a new version’ of a classic should first ask themselves if they can improve on the original. If not, as here, please don’t.