Theater review: Guthrie gives a classic a powerful update with ‘A Doll’s House’

Ever since it opened in 1963 with a modern-dress take on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater has been updating the classics in an effort to make the creations of centuries past feel prescient for contemporary audiences.

In the case of the company’s season-opening production of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 drama “A Doll’s House,” appearances can deceive, for Luciana Stecconi’s set and Trevor Bowen’s costumes look quite faithful to the year of its writing. But playwright Amy Herzog has authored an adaptation that sounds right at home in 2025. The language is considerably less flowery and formal than in Ibsen’s original, and each character is much more approachable, successfully bridging the cultural distance between then and now.

And thanks to six disarmingly powerful portrayals an