Henrik Ibsen

Ibsen, Henrik

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. A founder of Modernism, and often referred to as “the father of realism,” Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare.

His major works include Brand (New Theatre), Peer Gynt (New Amsterdam Theatre), An Enemy of the People (Abbey’s Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Fifth Avenue Theatre), Ghosts (Lyceum Theatre), The Wild Duck (Plymouth Theatre), Rosmersholm (Princess Theatre), The Master Builder (Carnegie Lyceum), and A Doll’s House, which became the world’s most performed play by the early 20th century (Palmer’s Theatre).

Several of his plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was required to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen’s work examined the realities that lay behind many façades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries.