On the evening of August 25^th, 2020, NCPA drama A Doll's House, a spotlight of the "Bright Autumn Cadenza" Series, was revived at the NCPA Theatre. It not only marked the ninth round of the performance since its premiere in 2014, but also is the second play presented by the NCPA after offline performances have resumed again (following another NCPA drama Look West to Chang'an).

This round of performances was directed by NCPA Resident Director SHEN Liang and co-starred by WANG Yiqing, LUO Wei, WANG Haowei, LIU Wenyi, YU Mengchao and WANG Wenjie from NCPA Drama Ensemble. On the evening of the Qixi Festival (i.e., Chinese Valentine's Day), NCPA drama A Doll's House not only probed into the contemporary reality through a drama classic, but also aroused people's reflections for freedom, love and marriage.

In the course of performance, a scroll of the living room of a middle-class Norwegian family in the 19^th century was unfolded on stage: a Christmas tree filled with gifts, glass windows covered with frost flowers; a quiet grand piano…Every corner of the house exuded a sweet and warm festival atmosphere. The couple, “Nora” and “Helmer”, respectively played by WANG Yiqing and LUO Wei, have a tacit understanding with each other. WANG and LUO shed light on this sweet couple with gestures. As the story line develops, Nora’s secret, which is she borrowed money from Krogstad to save her seriously ill husband Helmer, gets gradually revealed. It turns out that Nora deliberately kept the secret from Helmer. Krogstad, fired by Helmer, now threatens to file a lawsuit against Nora by accusing her of a “forged written pledge”. In the face of the crisis, different attitudes of the husband and wife trigger such a dissonance that “a happy family” breaks down. At last, Nora has been awakened by her wishing for her husband’s understanding in the past. WANG nuanced the awakening process of a woman from a doll to a real person. Helmer is a typical male chauvinist. LUO portrayed the hypocritical husband in a profound manner. WANG and LUO both so succeeded in shedding light on this couple that audiences were impressed. WANG Haowei, LIU Wenyi, YU Mengchao and WANG Wenjie also played their roles in a refined manner, as they incisively revealed the distress, struggles and scheming of people from different strata of society, and demonstrated the destinies of different roles under the same historical background in entanglements. In addition, stage and costume design restored the characteristics of the times. Asymmetrical arrangement of the furniture on stage implied the instability of "a doll's house", and highlighted the characters and destinies of the five roles in the drama.


During August 28^th-30^th, another three sessions of A Doll's House will continue at the NCPA Theatre. On September 19^th, the offline performance will be streamed on major Internet platforms, such as the NCPA Classical Music Channel. More audiences will have a good chance to appreciate this classical drama.