Willful Ignorance and Histrionics in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (Young Vic, 2012)
Filmed live for Digital Theatre at the Young Vic in London on the 17-18th of July, 2012. Director: Carrie Cracknell. It's hard to find a male role that calls for more willful ignorance than Torvald in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1876). His arrogance, paternalism and self-righteousness make his self-deceptions believable. Dominic Rohan's performance captures these qualities and personifies the type of man that does not ask himself about his financial situation and how he and his family can afford to go to Italy when he becomes ill from exhaustion; he lacks curiosity about his wife's activities and doesn't see her economizing or realize that she hides in her room to work to pay back a loan; he doesn't even seem to realize that he is married to a woman with a mind but instead seems content to believe that she thinks of nothing but shopping, his pleasure and running his house. He appears never to have asked her what she thinks or wants, and feels ...