Sarah Agnew to star in "Dollhouse"

By Rohan Preston

Stage dynamo Sarah Agnew is jumping from a rip-roaring piece of commedia dell'arte set in 18th-century Italy to a 21st-century drama set in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. A star of Carlo Goldoni's "A Servant of Two Masters" at the Yale Repertory Theatre, a production directed by Chris Bayes and co-starring Steve Epp, both of whom are alos ex-members of the late Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Agnew is to headline "Dollhouse" at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis

The play is Rebecca Gilman's update of Ibsen's classic about soulless materialism, unfulfilled yearnings and the societal strictures that bind women. Agnew will depict Nora in this adaptation that premiered five years ago at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. This new production is to be directed by Wendy Goldberg, head of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. It previews May 22 and runs through July 11.