"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

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Nothing stays the same. We live in an ever-shifting world which seems to mock us at every turn. I will willingly admit to being someone who believed our political landscape was shifting toward empathy and kindness. I believed with every fiber of my being that our nation, and our world, would reject a future full of extremist rhetoric and fear. But we did not. And we're not the only ones. 

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But fear among hard times is not a helpful solution. Those who seek justice in a world which swings on a pendulum must find ways to work around fear, and to constantly challenge the "bad rules" which have found their way into our collective mindset. Bad rules which separate us from each other, and regulate autonomy; particularly for women, people of color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 

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With this groundbreaking production, we focus on women (yes, including trans women, because they ARE women). The rights which have been stripped away. The bright future we almost attained being reversed by men in positions of power. The autonomy that women have sought for generations but somehow can never quite keep hold of due to - you guessed it - bad rules.

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Bad rules like those laid out in the next president's plans; from banning abortion, to taking away access to birth control, to even removing the right to no-fault divorce, the very topic this play is about. The incoming Vice President called no-fault divorce "one of the great tricks of the sexual revolution". This is what we are up against.

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In writing "A Doll's House, Part 2," Lucas Hnath took on a challenge which is largely unmatched in the modern theater world - to create a piece of art which captures the strong feminist ethic of Ibsen's 1879 play while also being even-handed, honest and challenging. I guarantee that you will come away from this production with several thoughts in mind, and I have laid out some discussion questions further down in this program to help us gather those thoughts. It is okay, and expected, for you to have differing opinions from the characters in this play. None of these characters are perfect, and none of them have all the answers. Which is why, 130 years after the setting of this play, we are still discussing these things.

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That said, through all of the uncertainty which may come with a story like this, one thing is certain - women, then and now, must have the ability to live in a world where they can control their own lives without the permission of a man. We must create a world in which stories like these don't need to be told anymore, because the bad rules and systems we have in place will no longer affect the autonomy of an individual woman. She will be able to make her own decisions, and find peace with them.

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I long for the day when stories like this are just comedies. Remnants of a time when we were so backwards that we didn't let women make choices for themselves. May we live to see it.

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Sincerely,

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Tony Winters

Director & Founder, Elemental Rep.