A Doll's House, at Young Vic, Seven magazine review Ibsen lays it on the line in A Doll's House. He claimed that the play was not a feminist tract, but through the retrospectoscope it is - it really is. As Nora Helmer explodes her husband Torvald's coochie-coochie world of him and his little wifey in the closing exchanges, it's as if history were taking one final gulp of breath before exhaling a different future upon the lives of men and women. If you ever see a production of the play, see this one. The director Carrie Cracknell's version, in a sharp new adaptation by the playwright Simon Stephens, is a master class in slow burn. It plays upon our desire for a happy conclusion, whilst moment by moment - from Nora's breathlessly optimistic entrance with a Christmas tree at the beginning to the savage end - dismantling our sentimental illusions. I really did want Nora's kids to have their Christmas presents and all to be well. Time may prove me wrong, but Hattie Morahan's Nora strikes me as a once-in-a-lifetime performance: sexy, resourceful, desperate, defiant, she drags us through her domestic torment. Dominic Rowan brings whatever baffled dignity can be brought to the out-of-his depth Torvald, and the rest of the company provide sure-footed accompaniment. The other star of the evening is Ian MacNeil's revolving set. No mere gimmick, this turns with the inexorability of a tragic clock, shifting scenes with cinematic ease, stirring up the stomach-churning sickness of the irrevocable decisions Nora has to make. To July 28; www.youngvic.org