In “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” playwright Lucas Hnath cheekily proposes a solution to a query that has haunted the theater for greater than a century: No matter occurred to Nora after she walked out on her marriage on the finish of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 drama, “A Doll’s House”?

The door slam that concludes Ibsen’s play ushered in a revolution in trendy drama. After Nora’s exit, something was doable on the levels of respectable European playhouses. Typical morality was not a choke maintain on dramatic characters, who have been allowed to set harmful new precedents for audiences that will have been simply shocked however have been not at all simply deterred.

Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

“A Doll’s House, Part 2,” which opened Sunday at Pasadena Playhouse underneath the course of Jennifer Chang, is a sequel with a puckish distinction. Though ostensibly set 15 years after Nora stormed out on Torvald and her three kids, the play takes place in a theatrical current that has one antique-looking shoe within the late nineteenth century and one whimsical sneaker within the early twenty first.

The hybrid nature of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” isn’t simply mirrored within the costume design. The language of the play strikes freely from the declamatory to the profane, with a few of its funniest moments occurring when fury impels a personality to unleash some naughty trendy vernacular.

Extra crucially, comedy and tragedy are allowed to coexist as parallel realities. Hnath has constructed “A Doll’s House, Part 2” as a contemporary comedy of concepts, divided right into a collection of confrontations wherein characters get to thrash out completely different views on their shared historical past.

Elizabeth Reaser in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Chang levels the play like a courtroom drama, with a portion of the viewers seated on the stage like a jury. The spare (if too dour) set by Wilson Chin, that includes the door that Nora made well-known and a few rearranged chairs, permits for the brisk transit of testimony in a drama that lets all 4 characters have their say.

Nora (performed with a contact an excessive amount of comedian affectation by Elizabeth Reaser) has develop into a profitable creator of controversial ladies’s books espousing radical concepts in regards to the lure of typical marriage. She has returned to the scene of her home crime out of necessity.

Torvald (portrayed with compelling inwardness by Jason Butler Harner), her stolid former husband, by no means filed the divorce papers. She’s now in authorized jeopardy, having carried out enterprise as an single lady. And her militant feminist views have gained her enemies who would love nothing greater than to ship her to jail.

Kahyun Kim in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Nora wants Torvald to do what he was alleged to have accomplished years in the past: formally finish their marriage. However not figuring out how he would possibly react to her reemergence, she makes preparations to strategize privately with Anne Marie (Kimberly Scott), the outdated nanny who raised Nora’s kids in her absence and isn’t significantly inclined to do her any favors.

After Torvald and Anne Marie each refuse to cooperate together with her, Nora has no selection however to show to her daughter, Emmy (crisply performed by Kahyun Kim). Not too long ago engaged to a younger banker, Emmy has chosen the street that her mom deserted, a distressing realization for Nora, who had hoped that her instance would have inaugurated a brand new period of risk for ladies.

Hnath works out the puzzle of Nora’s dilemma as if it have been a dramatic Rubik’s Dice. The play hasn’t any ax to grind. If there’s one prevailing reality, it’s that relationships are murkier and messier than ideological arguments.

Jason Butler Harner in “A Doll’s House Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Nora restates why she left her marriage and explains as greatest she will be able to the explanations she stayed away from her kids all these years. However her actions, nevertheless obligatory, left behind a tonnage of human wreckage. “A Doll’s House, Part 2” presents a posh ethical accounting. As every character’s forcefully held view is added to the ledger sheet, suspense builds over how the playwright will steadiness the books.

Every new manufacturing of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” works out the mathematics in a barely completely different means. The play had its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2017 in a chic manufacturing that was considerably extra somber than the Broadway manufacturing that opened shortly after and earned Laurie Metcalf a well-deserved Tony for her efficiency.

The play discovered its voice via the Broadway developmental course of, and Metcalf’s imprint is unmistakable within the rhythms of Nora’s whirligig monologues and bracing retorts. Metcalf is the uncommon actor who can lunge after comedy with out sacrificing the uncooked poignancy of her character.

Elizabeth Reaser, left, and Kimberly Scott in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Reaser adopts a humorous mode but it surely feels pressured. Extra damagingly, it doesn’t appear as if Hnath’s Nora has advanced all that a lot from the skittishly coquettish spouse of Ibsen’s play. The mental arc of “A Doll’s House, Part 2” suffers from the mincing means Reaser introduces the character, with little conviction for Nora’s feminist rules and solely a superficial sense of the lengthy, exhausting street of being born earlier than your time.

The early moments with Scott’s Anne Marie are unsteady. Reaser’s Nora comes off as a shallow lady oblivious of her privilege, which is true however solely partly so. Scott has an exquisite earthy high quality, however I missed the impeccable timing of Jayne Houdyshell’s Anne Marie, who might cease the present with an anachronistic F-bomb. Chang’s staging initially looks like a work-in-progress.

The manufacturing is galvanized by the superb performances of Harner and Kim. Harner reveals a Torvald modified by time and self-doubt. Years of solitude, sharpened by intimations of mortality, have cracked the banker’s sense of certainty. He blames Nora for the harm he’ll by no means recover from, however he doesn’t wish to go down because the paragon of dangerous husbands. He too would love an opportunity to redeem himself, even when (as Harner’s canny efficiency illustrates) character is just not infinitely malleable. Dangerous habits endure.

Kimberly Scott in “A Doll’s House, Part 2” at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Kim’s Emmy holds her personal in opposition to Nora at the same time as her proposed resolution to her mom’s dilemma entails some questionable ethics. Nora could also be upset that her daughter is making such conformist selections, however Emmy sees no purpose why the mom she by no means knew ought to really feel entitled to form her life. The brusquely managed means Kim’s Emmy speaks to Nora hints on the ocean of unresolved emotions between them.

The manufacturing is considerably hampered by Anthony Tran’s cumbersome costumes and Chin’s grimly rational scenic design. Elizabeth Harper’s lighting enlivens the uninteresting palette, however I missed the surreal notes of the South Coast Repertory and Broadway stagings. Hnath creates his personal universe, and the design selections ought to mirror this wonderland high quality to a jauntier diploma.

However Chang realizes the play’s full energy within the remaining scene between Nora and Torvald. Reaser poignantly plunges the depths of her character, as estranged husband and spouse share what the final 15 years have been like for them.

“A Doll’s House” was thought-about in its time to be politically incendiary. Hnath’s sequel, with out squelching the politics, picks up the forgotten human story of Ibsen’s indelible basic.

‘A Doll’s Home, Half 2’

The place: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 2 and eight p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (verify for exceptions); ends June 8

Tickets: Begin at $40 for normal seating

Data: (626) 356-7529 or PasadenaPlayhouse.org

Working time: 1 hour, half-hour