Book description
'I think I'm a human being before anything else. I don't care what
other people say. I don't care what people write in books. I need to
think for myself.' Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered in 1879 in
Copenhagen, the second in a series of realist plays by Ibsen, and
immediately provoked controversy with its apparently feminist message
and exposure of the hypocrisy of Victorian middle-class marriage. In
Ibsen's play, Nora Helmer has secretly (and deceptively) borrowed a
large sum of money to pay for her husband, Torvald, to recover from
illness on a sabbatical in Italy. Torvald's perception of Nora is of a
silly, naive spendthrift, so it is only when the truth begins to emerge,
and Torvald appreciates the initiative behind his wife, that unmendable
cracks appear in their marriage. This compelling new version of Ibsen's
masterpiece by playwright Simon Stephens premiered at the Young Vic
Theatre, London, on 29 June 2012. 'Ibsen's great feminist drama' Daily
Telegraph Simon Stephens has been the recipient of both the Pearson
Award for Best New Play 2001-2 for his play Port, and the Olivier Award
for Best New Play 2005 for On the Shore of the Wide World. His recent
plays include Harper Regan (National Theatre), Punk Rock (Lyric
Hammersmith/Royal Exchange, Manchester), Pornography (Traverse and
Birmingham Rep), Wastwater (Royal Court and Wiener Festwochen), The
Trial of Ubu (Hampstead Theatre) and Three Kingdoms (Lyric Hammersmith).
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and poet whose
realistic, symbolic and often controversial plays revolutionised
European theatre. He is widely regarded as the father of modern drama.
His acclaimed plays include A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, An
Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Community.
