Viewing page 9 of 43

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

A DOLL'S LIFE      
by Mervyn Rothstein

Janet McTeer has won raves and awards, giving what is being called the quintessential performance of Ibsen's heroine in A Doll's House

[[image: color photograph  of Janet McTeer in costume on stage]] 
[[photo credit]] JOAN MARCUS [[/photo credit]]

Janet McTeer is thrilled to be on Broadway, and Broadway is thrilled to have her. Reviewing her astonishing portrayal of Nora, the childlike housewife who finally asserts her feminine independence in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Ben Brantley of The New York Times called her a "revelation" and said she made it seem as if the century-old role "was only just written, and written specifically for her." Sellout audiences at the Belasco Theatre agree.

"It's all so amazing," the tall, blonde, 35-year-old actress says. "You can't really take it all in. But I'm very happy. I'm enjoying every second. I can't quite remember the last time I was in such a good mood."

McTeer has every right to feel that way. Earlier this year, she won the Olivier Award in London, besting three of Britain's finest actresses: Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Diana Rigg and Eileen Atkins. Critics have said that McTeer and her superb supporting cast - including Owen Teale as her husband, Torvald, and their imaginative director, Anthony Page - have taken an 1879 classic and made it a deeply relevant and moving contemporary drama.

Sitting in a restaurant near the theatre, McTeer will relate how it all came to pass - how a nearly six-foot-one actress, too tall in almost anyone's mind to play the doll-like housewife, came to give what is perhaps the quintessential performance in the role.

"I had seen the play a few times, and I had a lot of ideas about it," she recalls. "And then in 1995 I was asked to do it on BBC radio. I said yes, because I also thought I was too tall, that I wasn't right for it on the stage. But after doing it on the radio, I decided that Nora may be a little person on the inside - but she isn't a little person on the outside."

She took her ideas to Thelma Holt, a London producer and a good friend. Holt liked what she heard and produced the play in London (Bill Kenwright is the lead producer on Broadway).

Nora Helmer, McTeer says, "has no self esteem. She has no idea who she is or how to be herself. She was brought up to be a good wife and a good mother, and she thought she was happy, playing out this game of who she should be." Then, suddenly, everything goes wrong in her life, and "she realizes she's a much bigger, much better person."

At the start of the play, McTeer's Nora is a tense personification of perpetual motion, a nervous mixture of manic laughter and anxious chatter, a woman trying to hide her true feelings from her herself and everyone else. Such mammoth 

16

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

[[advertisement]]
[[image: Chase logo]] CHASE

Alright, there is a catch to our free Chase Online Banking.

You have to ask for it.

[[image: color photograph of a computer monitor showing Chase online banking home screen]]

Now you can do your day-to-day banking more quickly and easily than ever, right from your own computer. You can even pay your bills. With Chase Online Banking. Free to Get. If you're a Chase business or personal checking customer, you get our online software absolutely free. And it's remarkably easy to install. Free to Use. Online Banking isn't a new account - it's a new way to access the accounts you already have. Use it to get banking information 24 hours a day. To find out if a check has cleared. To pay bills or transfer money. Your private password keeps your personal finances personal. And there are no charges. Even the bill-paying is free. Frees You Up. So spend less time on your banking. And more time doing... whatever. Further proof that, when you're in the right relationship, things just keep getting better.

To sign up, call 1-800-CHASE24
or stop by any of our 500 branches. Visit our Web site at www.chase.com

CHASE. The right relationship is everything ^SM.

Available for New Jersey accounts in July 1997, ©1997 The Chase Manhattan Bank. Member FDIC.
[[/advertisement]]