Audible Theatre Collection: Ibsen
Born in 1828, Norwegian playwright, theatre director and poet Ibsen, wrote in Danish yet lived for many years in Italy and Germany. Heralded as one the most distinguished dramatists after Shakespeare, by the early 20th century A Doll's House became the world's most performed play. Hedda Gabler A poignant study of loneliness, impotent rage and societal expectations breeding a certain kind of madness, this trailblazing play focusses on Hedda Gabler, 'the general's daughter', and her rising feelings of anger and jealousy towards a former schoolmate, fuelled by her lack of control in her own life. When a former suitor comes back into her life, bringing with him all kinds of complication, passion and history, Hedda devises a plot to win back her power... which ultimately leads to a very civilized sort of chaos and, ultimately, tragedy. Full cast: Laura Carmichael, James Parkes, Rachel Atkins, Sarah Whitehouse, Christopher Dane, Harry Myers, Fiz Marcus. A Doll's House Nora Helmers is her husband Torvald's adorable 'little doll'. Pretty and doll-like in her doll's house with her healthy children and seemingly respectable life, she and her family have it all... or so it seems. Behind closed doors, like a lot of Ibsen's antiheroines, Nora is unhappy and unfulfilled. She is thoughtful, intelligent and trapped, playing the role of a dutiful wife in a situation that doesn't arouse any of her passions, in a society that believes that she shouldn't have any. A fascinating before-its-time window onto a world where expectations of women were streets apart from the contemporary world, Ibsen's masterpiece is a study in strength, determination and hard choices against all the odds. Full cast: Laura Carmichael, Edward Harrison, Christopher Dane, Sarah Whitehouse, Harry Myers, Jessica Dennis, Josephine Arden. An Enemy of the People A true classic and a play for modern time
