10th Theatre Olympics Hungary 2023.

Nora plays the theatre of life to perfection. She takes it to the extreme until it explodes and releases the core of the ego. Nora symbolizes the theatre's struggle to go beyond its theatrical self and become life; to set itself on fire, to approach the Unseen, the Nothing. This other theatre, the theatre behind the stage, is that which cannot be "theatre". Ibsen's A Dollhouse is, after all, a study on the "being" of theatre. 

Nora compulsively satisfies her desires. Money is a vital missing element for her psyche. Her relationship with Torvald suits her: she is his dolly, his canary. Nora confesses that the dolly who so dutifully plays her part would like to explode at some point and expose the deceit. She blames her fake life on Torvald, but in reality they are accomplices in the lie. The tacit agreement they have allows them to mask their hostile feelings, believe they are an ideal couple united by genuine love and live their lives in a lie, in a dollhouse, dancing in a masquerade. 

When Krogstad appears, the dance turns into a nightmare, a frantic disintegration of the whole system. Krogstad brings to the surface what is repressed in the unconscious and threatens to bring down the shaky edifice. Krogstad is the dark unconscious that hides all the destructive impulses.

The unconscious is relentless. Nora must pay for her sin. She can no longer ignore her destructive urges, which are now turning against her. That is an important turning point. 

As for Torvald, it turns out that he is a narcissist who cares only for what the world thinks. The moral principles with which he tries to restrain Nora are hypocritical. Torvald represents the social Superego, the conventional values, which for Ibsen are the vital lies. 

The drama climaxes at the end with Nora's transcendence. She closes the door behind her with a thud on Torvald and their children. She leaves the conventional social value system behind. And she flees into the unknown. It is a form of suicide that can create the conditions for the birth of an authentic ego. 

Because the game in the Dollhouse is played between the fearful, manufactured ego and the repressed true self struggling to catch its breath. The moment it breathes, however, it faces a void. This is the price of self-knowledge. And this is the motivation of theatre.