Henrik Johan Ibsen

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Ibsen, Henrik Johan (1828–1906), Norwegian dramatist and poet, the most important theatrical figure of his generation, whose plays completely changed the main current of European dramatic literature. At one time regarded purely as a depicter of small-town provincial life, he is now recognized as a universal genius who infused even his prose works with a profoundly passionate and tragic poetic spirit. His early years were unhappy, his first plays, Catilina (1850) and Fru Inger til Østraat (Lady Inger of Østraat, 1854), unsuccessful. Gildet paa Solhaug (The Feast at Solhaug, 1855) was the first to achieve recognition; Hærmændene paa Helgeland (The Warriors—or Vikings—at Helgeland, 1857), set in the heroic age of the sagas, shows what remarkable progress Ibsen had made during the time he had spent working at the theatre in Bergen, as assistant to Ole Bull. All these early plays were historical. After this Ibsen used the past as a setting for his plays only twice more—in Kongsemnerne (The Pretenders, 1864) and Kejser og Galilæer (Emperor and Galilean) completed in 1873.

In 1862 the theatre in Bergen went bankrupt and Ibsen moved to Christiania (Oslo), where his first play on contemporary life, a satire in verse entitled Kjærlighedens komedie (Love's Comedy), was produced with some success. A year later he received a travelling fellowship which enabled him to visit Italy and Germany, and in 1864 he settled in Rome, where he wrote his great poetic drama Brand. This established his reputation throughout Europe and earned him a state pension. It was followed by his last play in verse, Peer Gynt, written in 1867 and produced in a revised stage version, with incidental music by Grieg, in 1876.

The four plays that followed are realistic portrayals of ageless and universal parochialism set in the small-town life of Ibsen's own day: Samfundets støtter (Pillars of Society, 1877) is a study of public life based on a lie; Et dukkehjem (A Doll's House, 1879) of the insidious destruction of domestic life by another lie; Gengangere (Ghosts, 1881) of the lingering poison in a marriage based on a lie; En folkefiende (An Enemy of the People, 1882) of a man of truth in conflict with the falsity of society. All have the structural economy and simplicity of a skilled writer at the height of his powers, and all, in thought and technique, exercised an immense influence on the contemporary theatre. Ibsen's last plays, in which symbolism plays an increasingly large part and the interest shifts gradually from the individual in society to the individual isolated and alone, include Vildanden (The Wild Duck, 1884), Rosmersholm (1886), Fruen fra havet (The Lady from the Sea, 1888), Hedda Gabler (1890), a subtle study of feminine psychology, Bygmester Solness (The Master Builder, 1892), which is concerned with the dual nature of the man and the artist, Lille Eyolf (Little Eyolf, 1894), a study of marital relations, John Gabriel Borkman (1896), a study of unfulfilled genius in relation to society, and Naar vi døde vaagner (When We Dead Awaken, 1899), Ibsen's last pronouncement on the artist's relation to life and truth.

The first play by Ibsen to be seen in London, in 1880, was Samfundets støtter, translated by William Archer (who quickly established himself as the main translator of Ibsen) as Quicksands; under the better-known title, Pillars of Society, it was staged in 1889. Et dukkehjem, as Breaking a Butterfly, with Tree as Krogstad (renamed Dunkley), was seen in 1884; as Nora, in 1885; and as A Doll's House, with Janet Achurch as Nora, in 1889. Florence Farr and Frank Benson appeared in Rosmersholm in 1891. In the same year came the private production of Gengangere, as Ghosts, which aroused a storm of abuse, and the first performance of The Lady from the Sea. In 1893 came The Master Builder and An Enemy of the People, again with Tree. The Wild Duck in 1894. Little Eyolf in 1896. John Gabriel Borkman in 1897, and The League of Youth in 1900 were followed by a Stage Society production of When We Dead Awaken in 1903. In the same year came Gordon Craig's production of The Vikings at Helgeland with his mother, Ellen Terry, as Hiordis. Lady Inger came in 1906, Peer Gynt and Olaf Liljekrans in 1911, The Burial Mound (as The Hero's Mound) and Brand in 1912, The Pretenders in 1913, St John's Night in 1921. In 1936 Donald Wolfit appeared in Catiline. A production outside London deserving mention is Love's Comedy, produced as early as 1909 at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. Most of Ibsen's plays have been revived, often in new translations.

In 1882 the world première of Gengangere was given in Chicago, in Norwegian, a year before its first production in Europe, and in the same year America saw its first translated Ibsen play, Et Dukkehjem as The Child Wife; it was presented in 1883 in Louisville, Ky., as A Doll's House with Modjeska as Nora. Ghosts followed in 1894 and John Gabriel Borkman in 1897. The critical response was generally hostile; but leading ladies of the calibre of Mrs Fiske persisted in playing Ibsen's heroines. Hedda Gabler was first produced in America in 1898, The Master Builder in 1900, Rosmersholm and The Pillars of Society in 1904, and When We Dead Awake(n) in 1905. By the year of Ibsen's death, opinion had changed in his favour; Richard Mansfield presented Peer Gynt in that year, and when Nazimova mounted a season of Ibsen plays in 1906–7 the important literary critics James Huneker and William Dean Howells came to his defence. The first American productions of Brand, Little Eyolf, and The Lady from the Sea came in 1910, and of The Wild Duck in 1918. Eleonora Duse's national tour with Ghosts and The Lady from the Sea in 1923 paved the way for the Actors' Theater and Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Company, both in New York, to champion Ibsen's plays alongside other European works. Walter Hampden gave An Enemy of the People its American première in 1927 and by 1929 there were six Ibsen productions on Broadway, with Eva Le Gallienne and Blanche Yurka appearing simultaneously as Hedda Gabler. The Vikings had its first American production in 1930. A shift in the taste of American audiences towards new and purely American plays led to 20 years of comparative neglect; but with Arthur Miller's adaptation of An Enemy of the People in 1950 and Lee Strasberg's production of Peer Gynt in 1951 this came to an end, and Ibsen's work has since ranked highly.

Ibsen, Henrik [Johan] (1828–1906), playwright. Probably no foreign dramas caused debate so prolonged and impassioned as did the emergence of Ibsen's Norwegian plays in the American theatre. What was the first American production of Ibsen is uncertain, but Scandinavian performers did offer the world premiere of Ghosts to Chicago and other midwestern cities in 1882, and that same year the play later known as A Doll's House was offered in English as The Child Bride, albeit given a happy ending. The same play, with a similar happy ending, was presented by Helena Modjeska as Thora in 1883. However, it fell to an 1889 production of A Doll's House, faithfully translated and given its correct name, to spread Ibsen's fame and precipitate the controversy. To the leading anti‐Ibsenite, William Winter, Ibsenism was seen as “rank, deadly pessimism . . . a disease, injurious alike to the Stage and to the Public—in as far as it affects them at all—and therefore an evil to be deprecated.” Aligned against Winter and his allies were such other leading figures as Walter Prichard Eaton, William Dean Howells, and James Huneker. The pro‐Ibsen cause was taken up by such distinguished performers as Mrs. Fiske, Alla Nazimova, and Richard Mansfield. Their appearances in Ibsen plays gained the writer such widespread acceptance that by 1908 Eaton could write, “Ibsen is one of the most popular playwrights in America today.” Mrs. Fiske had done A Doll's House (1894), Hedda Gabler (1903), and Rosmersholm (1907). Late in her career she would star in Ghosts (1927). Nazimova did Hedda Gabler (1906), A Doll's House (1907), The Master Builder (1907), and Little Eyolf (1910). In 1906 Mansfield offered Peer Gynt. Blanche Bates and Nance O'Neill offered their Heddas about the same time and Ethel Barrymore her Nora. For a while interest in and enthusiasm for Ibsen dwindled, but Eleanora Duse's performance in The Lady from the Sea sparked a revival, as did the Theatre Guild's production of Peer Gynt with Joseph Schildkraut. Eva Le Gallienne and Walter Hampden both became advocates and appeared in several major revivals. Le Gallienne was the more doggedly loyal of the two. Beginning in 1925, when she portrayed Hilda Wangel in The Master Builder, she appeared in or staged numerous mountings, including several of Hedda Gabler (1928, 1934, 1948), John Gabriel Borkman (1926, 1946), and Rosmersholm (1935). She also played Mrs. Alving in Ghosts (1948). Hampden's most notable offering was An Enemy of the People (1928, 1937). A somewhat lesser performer, Blanche Yurka, headed revivals of The Wild Duck (1925, 1928), Hedda Gabler, and The Lady from the Sea (1929).

In the 1930s and 1940s a reaction set in, prompted by the perception that the problems Ibsen dealt with were no longer those of immediate concern to contemporary American society. Probably the most interesting production of this period was Thornton Wilder's adaptation of A Doll's House (1937), which Jed Harris presented with Ruth Gordon and Paul Lukas. Ibsen's appeal waxed again in the 1950s, which saw Arthur Miller's version of An Enemy of the People (1950), Lee Strasberg's staging of Peer Gynt (1951), and the Phoenix Theatre's productions of The Master Builder (1955) and Peer Gynt (1960). In the 1960s David Ross offered a much admired cycle of Ibsen plays Off Broadway. More recently there have been fewer major mountings, though some outstanding performances in Ibsen plays were seen. Claire Bloom essayed both Nora and Hedda with success in 1971, Susannah York played the latter in 1981, and Liv Ullmann shone as Nora and Mrs. Alving in 1982. That same year there was a short‐lived musical on Broadway called A Doll's Life that attempted to show Nora's life after she walked out. Stacy Keach made a fascinating Peer Gynt in the Central Park production in 1969, while Stephen Elliott and Philip Bosco were praised as the Stockmann brothers in a Lincoln Center production of An Enemy of the People in 1971. Beatrice Straight was Mrs. Alving in a long‐running Ghosts in 1973 with a young Victor Garber commended as Osvald, and Vanessa Redgrave was the star attraction in The Lady from the Sea in 1976 E. G. Marshall was quietly impressive as John Gabriel Borkman in 1980, but Janet McTeer's Nora in 1997 was a whirling dervish in a performance one either loved or loathed. The most recent Broadway Hedda was Kate Burton in 2001. The influence of Ibsen's sociological realism was immediately felt in American playwriting. James A. Herne was the first to openly acknowledge his debt, but his work was overshadowed in later decades by the plays of such writers as Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, both of whom looked to Ibsen as an exemplar.