I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. You have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.

One of the great attractions of this emotionally-charged play is that it presents us with a character who faces a burning dilemma and who seems doomed no matter which option she chooses to solve it. And then, when all seems lost, she chooses to do the unthinkable. The ending of the play, a slammed door, sent shock waves around the world that still echo today. It ushered modern drama onto centre stage, banishing aristocratic comedy and melodramatic to the side. It premiered in Copenhagen in 1879 at the dawn of the suffragette movement, and has ever since become one of the world’s most performed plays.

This version by Kildare Youth Theatre is directed by Evan Lynch and features young actors drawn from all over Kildare. The youth theatre has gained an impressive critical reputation for producing dynamic and artistically inventive version of classical plays. The production is especially made for schools – this play is a prescribed single text, and also a comparative text, for both ordinary and higher level Leaving Cert English in 2017. The day time shows are followed by a post-show discussion.