Plexus Polaire (France-Norway)

The characters are portrayed by hyper-realistic puppets and animated objects to create dialogue and tension. The life-sized puppets are manipulated on sight in an immersive device, where visual theatre, visual arts and music interact with each other, becoming ideal metaphors for a society of pretence, while Nora's living room gradually fills with curious and frightening creatures. We are plunged into a world on the edge of the fantastic, where the heroine is a prisoner of her own web of lies, woven over the years, and where every visual and sound element helps to illustrate Nora's quest for freedom and emancipation.

Yngvild Aspeli plays Nora, a housewife who becomes aware of the make-believe world in which she lives, and decides to leave her husband and children to free herself from her domestic and social ties. Yngvild has developed a unique and impressive puppetry work at the crossroads of different disciplines. She is one of the world's leading figures in puppetry, with her extraordinary scenic proposals for large-scale productions. In A Doll's House, she offers us a very personal reading of this great classic of Norwegian literature, and transforms it into a unique sensory experience by combining puppetry, dance, voice and images, transcending conventions to touch the deepest emotions.

An uncanny mix of actors and puppets, birds and hybrid bodies, illusion and reality, plunges the audience into the centre of the action, in a play of perspectives that amplifies the dramatic tension.

Yngvild Aspeli turns the stage into a gigantic spider's web that reveals one woman's struggle for freedom. Interpreting a Nora devoured by the straitjacket of domesticity, the Norwegian actress draws us into the art of puppetry, delivering a troubling blend of human and animal, actor and puppet.

A Doll’s House that enchant us and shakes. It shatters and releases old spectres.

"It all started with the sound of a bird crashing into my window.

It's a rainy day and I am sitting at my kitchen-table, curled up with a big cup of coffee and a good book, when I heard a “thump” against the window. This short, but immediately recognizable sound, instantly made me close my eyes (…). It was as if the moment the bird's bones cracked against the glass, something made of glass also cracked inside of me (…). With a sigh I put down my book and walked over to the bookshelf. I stood there for a moment, my eyes searching among the titles, my hand suspended in front of the book's backs, the sound of that bird still beating against my ribs. And my hand landed on A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (…).

A Doll's House is an old house filled with timeworn ghosts that still haunts us today. A story of the roles we play, the games we gamble, the illusions we surround ourselves with. It is about grabbing hold and letting go, and about dancing as if your life depends on it."

- Yngvild Aspeli

^{"Stage a Doll’s House with puppets? As strange as it seems, no one had risked it (…). The idea could have been too obvious, in fact. But Yngvild Aspeli avoids all the pitfalls, and produces an extremely strong show, which puts her mastery of puppetry at the service of the merciless dramaturgical mechanics invented by her compatriot Henrik Ibsen in 1879 (...).}

^{The heart of it is the relationship between the human-sized puppets, slightly hyper-realistic as always with Yngvild Aspeli, and the actors. The game that takes place between them is virtuoso and fascinating (…).}

^{And then there are the spiders. At first tiny and discreet, over the course of the show they become enormous and invasive, referring to the key scene of the play, the one where Nora experiences a sort of liberating trance, while dancing the tarantella. We will keep it in our hearts for a long time, the mythological fight between Nora, magnificently played by Yngvild Aspeli herself, and the beast with tentacle legs." - Fabienne Darge, Le Monde}

^{“The Norwegian puppeteer and director Yngvild Aspeli boldly revisits Ibsen's masterpiece. Expressive, the life-sized puppets which she brings to life are breathtaking." - Libération}

^{"A show of incredible force which was unanimously acclaimed." - Stéphane Capron, France Inter}

^{"Her staging (...) is a marvel (...). It's as if Nora, beyond her time, had never spoken to us so directly about her burning soul, her sufferings, her struggles and her painful path to emancipation. Bravo!" - Emmanuelle Bouchez, Télérama}

^{“A powerful work, supported by a breathtaking visual and sound score (...). Plastically and aesthetically, the show is extremely good, thanks to the quality of the images (from the apparitions to the choreographic fluidity) and the performances of Yngvild Aspeli and Viktor Lukawski. They are as convincing in their manipulation as they are in their interpretation. We're not ready to leave this Doll's House." - Laura Plas, Les Trois Coups}

BIO

Director, actress, puppeteer and puppet-maker, Yngvild Aspeli was born in Norway. Artistic director of Plexus Polaire, Yngvild Aspeli, develops a visual world that brings to life our most buried feelings. The use of life-sized puppets is at the center of her work, but the actor’s performance, the music and the use of light and video are all equal elements in communicating the story.

Yngvild Aspeli studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris (2003-2005) and at ESNAM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette) in Charleville-Mézières (2005-2008).

Within her French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire, she has directed six shows: Signals (2011), Opera Opaque (2013), Ashes(2014), Chambre noire (2017), Moby Dick (2020), Dracula Lucy’s Dream (2021), A Doll’s House (2023) and Trust me for a while(2025). Many of her shows have been great successes at FIMFA, such as Chambre Noire or Moby Dick, presented in 2021 at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. Her major productions continue to tour internationally all over the world.

Yngvild is currently an associated artist at CDN Dijon-Bourgogne (France). She is also the artistic director of Figurteatret i Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre) in Stamsund, Norway.

Arte.tv: Des marionnettes dans la Maison de poupée d'Ibsen

_CREDITS

_{Inspired by the play by Henrik Ibsen / Direction: Yngvild Aspeli, Paola Rizza Puppeteers: Yngvild Aspeli, Viktor Lukawski Music composer: Guro Skumsnes Moe Choir: Oslo 14 Ensemble Puppet builders: Yngvild Aspeli, Sébastien Puech, Carole Allemand, Pascale Blaison, Delphine Cerf, Romain Duverne Scenography: François Gauthier-Lafaye Set building : Eclektik Sceno Lighting designer: Vincent Loubière Costume designer: Benjamin Moreau Sound designer: Simon Masson Stage technician and Manipulation: Alix Weugue Dramaturgy: Pauline Thimonnier Choreography: Cécile Laloy Head of production and booking: Claire Costa Administration: Anne-Laure Doucet Logistics: Iris Oriol Producer: Noémie Jorez Photography: Johan Karisson, Tomas Lauvland Pettersen, Christophe Raynaud de Lage Coproduction: Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne CDN, Les Gémeaux - Scène Nationale de Sceaux, Le Bateau Feu - Scène Nationale de Dunkerque, Le Trident - Scène Nationale de Cherbourg, Le Manège - Scène Nationale de Reims, Figurteatret i Nordland Stamsund, Baerum Kulturhus, Nordland Teater, Mo i Rana, Teater Innlandet, Hamar, Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnette de Charleville-Mézières, Ljubljana Puppet Theatre Support: Kulturrådet / Arts Council Norway, DGCA Ministère de la Culture, DRAC et Région Bourgogne Franche Comté, Département de l’Yonne 
www.plexuspolaire.com}