Henrik Ibsen

Writing

Henrik Ibsen

Born — Died

1828-03-20 — 1906-05-23

Place of birth

Skien, Telemark, Norway

Known for

Writing

Credits

39 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Henrik Johan Ibsen (20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, When We Dead Awaken, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House was the world's most performed play in 2006. Ibsen's early poetic and cinematic play Peer Gynt has strong s…

Known for

Peer Gynt poster
9.0

The 1972 BBC adaptation of Ibsen’s epic dramatic fantasy about a man in search of his soul.

Peer Gynt

1972

The Wild Duck poster
9.0

A loving family's world is shattered by an old friend's arrival, carrying a dark secret.

The Wild Duck

1970

A Doll's House poster
5.5

One of Ibsen's best known plays, A Dolls House caused a sensation when first published, as it provided a critique on the conventions of Victorian marriage. Nora Helmer feels suffocated and belittled in her marriage to banker Torvald. When faced with blackmail as a result of an attempt to save her husband's life, Nora decides that the only way to discover the real world is to step outside the illusions within her doll's house.

A Doll's House

1992

The Wild Duck poster
7.0

A devestating, yet bracing look at a family whose proximity to each other belies the decay of their relationships, The Wild Duck is just as modern today as it was when first staged. When Gregors Werle comes to stay with the Ekdals, his idealist nature refuses to tolerate the dreamworld of lies the family is living. However, in his bid to force the Ekdals to see the truth, the skeletons he unearths destroy the family that he wanted to redeem.

The Wild Duck

1971

A Doll's House poster
NR

Niru is a young Bengali woman married to an English colonial bureaucrat – Tom. Tom loves Niru, exoticising her as a frivolous plaything to be admired and kept. But Niru has a long-kept secret. And just as she thinks she is almost free of it, it threatens to bring her life crashing down around her. Tanika Gupta reimagines Henrik Ibsen's classic play of gender politics through the lens of British colonialism, offering a bold, female perspective exploring themes of ownership and race. Performed between September 6 and October 5, 2019 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, UK (filmed October 5, 2019).

A Doll's House

2019

No artwork available
7.0

Henrik Ibsen's famous drama from 1886. As formulated by the protagonist Rosmer, the theme of the play is social and political change, which means that the traditional ruling classes renounce imposing their ideals on the rest of society. The play's immoral, or amoral, "free-thinking" heroine, Rebekka, sets out to undermine Rosmer's religious and political views because he is an influential person in society. Rebekka has not only renounced Christianity, but also its entire ethical system.

Rosmersholm

2001

Film credits

Behind the camera

Peer Gynt poster
9.0

The 1972 BBC adaptation of Ibsen’s epic dramatic fantasy about a man in search of his soul.

Peer Gynt

1972

The Wild Duck poster
9.0

A loving family's world is shattered by an old friend's arrival, carrying a dark secret.

The Wild Duck

1970

A Doll's House poster
5.5

One of Ibsen's best known plays, A Dolls House caused a sensation when first published, as it provided a critique on the conventions of Victorian marriage. Nora Helmer feels suffocated and belittled in her marriage to banker Torvald. When faced with blackmail as a result of an attempt to save her husband's life, Nora decides that the only way to discover the real world is to step outside the illusions within her doll's house.

A Doll's House

1992

The Wild Duck poster
7.0

A devestating, yet bracing look at a family whose proximity to each other belies the decay of their relationships, The Wild Duck is just as modern today as it was when first staged. When Gregors Werle comes to stay with the Ekdals, his idealist nature refuses to tolerate the dreamworld of lies the family is living. However, in his bid to force the Ekdals to see the truth, the skeletons he unearths destroy the family that he wanted to redeem.

The Wild Duck

1971

A Doll's House poster
NR

Niru is a young Bengali woman married to an English colonial bureaucrat – Tom. Tom loves Niru, exoticising her as a frivolous plaything to be admired and kept. But Niru has a long-kept secret. And just as she thinks she is almost free of it, it threatens to bring her life crashing down around her. Tanika Gupta reimagines Henrik Ibsen's classic play of gender politics through the lens of British colonialism, offering a bold, female perspective exploring themes of ownership and race. Performed between September 6 and October 5, 2019 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, UK (filmed October 5, 2019).

A Doll's House

2019

No artwork available
7.0

Henrik Ibsen's famous drama from 1886. As formulated by the protagonist Rosmer, the theme of the play is social and political change, which means that the traditional ruling classes renounce imposing their ideals on the rest of society. The play's immoral, or amoral, "free-thinking" heroine, Rebekka, sets out to undermine Rosmer's religious and political views because he is an influential person in society. Rebekka has not only renounced Christianity, but also its entire ethical system.

Rosmersholm

2001

Brand poster
9.0

Brand's a bleak and desolate play that challenges the notion of a stern and stoic faith in the will of God. The title character is a pastor who returns to his ancestral home to find the villagers on the verge of starvation. He believes ministering to these poor people to be his calling. Over the course of the play, however, he faces many difficult choices. The decisions he makes, based on his stark and idealistic view of morality, have dire consequences for all the people he touches and, ultimately, for his own embattled soul.

Brand

1959

Ghosts poster
3.0

Helene Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helene plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.

Ghosts

2014

Hedda Gabler poster
NR

Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon and the relationship is already in trouble. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control those around her, only to see her own world unravel.

Hedda Gabler

1967

Gjengangere poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Gjengangere

2017

Ein Volksfeind poster
NR

Henrik Ibsen's drama from 1882 in Ostermeier's vision since 2012. Dr. Stockmann discovers that the source of drinking and spa water is riddled with pathogenic micro-organisms, caused by industrial effluence. He wants to publish the findings in the newspaper and demands that the city council re-route the water pipes. Influential citizens and local journalists promise their support. However, his brother Peter, the mayor, raises some serious concerns: The economic prosperity of the spa town will be threatened. Suddenly the support for Stockman from the town's policymakers begins to wane. They spread seeds of doubt about his plans and try to cover up the fact of the contaminated water. But Stockmann insists on transparency and intends to go public on the matter. For him the affair has long since ceased to be about the polluted health spa, his target is society as a whole.

Ein Volksfeind

2013

Hedda Gabler poster
9.0

Hedda Gabler is a beautiful woman married to the solid and respectable academic George Tesman. Then an old flame, the dreamer Eilert Lovborg, turns up on the scene with tragic results

Hedda Gabler

1993

The Lady from the Sea poster
NR

A lighthouse-keeper’s daughter is trapped in her marriage and longs for the sea.

The Lady from the Sea

1953

The Lady from the Sea poster
6.0

A lighthouse keeper's daughter, lives her opportunist marital life, until her past lover appears in her life.

The Lady from the Sea

1974

The Master Builder poster
NR

Ibsen's play is the story of Halvard Solness, Master Builder of a town in Norway. Solness is a successful architect but he's afraid of the being surpassed by those younger than himself. The arrival of a young woman called Hilda stirs up memories and feelings with stories of a promise he made her many years ago.

The Master Builder

1988

Baumeister Solness poster
NR

If you climb, you risk falling. For master builder Solness, this is doubly true. He had started out as a clerk in an architect's office, but soon got his own commissions and pushed his boss more and more to the side. Marrying a wealthy woman and her stately possessions came in handy for him. When the house he inherited fell victim to a fire, he subdivided the site and placed single-family homes on it. His boss became his employee, as did his son, and finally he made his fiancee his accountant. She adores him, which he only uses to keep the family dependent. Solness is considered a happy person. But he is driven by fear and feelings of guilt.

Baumeister Solness

2004

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Nora

1955

Peer Gynt poster
NR

Peer Gynt is a charming but lazy and arrogant peasant youth who leaves home to seek his fortune. Confident of success, he has one disastrous adventure after another. In one, he attends the wedding of a wealthy young woman he himself might have married. There he meets Solveig, who falls in love with him. He impulsively abducts the bride from her wedding celebration and subsequently abandons her. He then embarks on a series of fantastic voyages around the world, finding wealth and fame but never happiness. This production is a new and modern take on Peer Gynt as a psychological drama.

Peer Gynt

2023

No artwork available
7.0

Young Bernick and Johan Tonnesen are close friends, living in Norway. Bernick is engaged to marry Johan's sister, who is an heiress. He is simply marring her for her money, as he is really in love with the wife of an actor. While on a visit to his old love, in which he hopes to break off the affair, the woman's husband unexpectedly enters the room, and Bernick is compelled to escape by the window. Johan, upon learning of his friend's threatened disgrace, assumes Bernick's guilt, and leaves the country for America. Bernick takes advantage of his friend's chivalry by allowing it to be generally believed that Johan also misappropriated funds. In reality, Bernick was guilty of this crime as well as the other.

Pillars of Society

1911

Little Eyolf poster
6.7

Alfred Allmers has spent his whole life writing a book on "responsibility," a luxury he can afford as a result of his marriage to the wealthy and beautiful Rita. However, much to Rita's annoyance, his attention isn't always undivided toward her, as Alfred shifts his focus between his book, their son Eyolf, and his half-sister Asta. As Allmers slowly feels trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, emotions and a painful past threaten to boil over into a terrible finale.

Little Eyolf

1982

No artwork available
9.0

Adaptation of Ibsen's play Vildanden.

The House of Lies

1926

The Master Builder poster
10.0

Famed playwright Henrik Ibsen tells the tale of a master builder in the twilight of his career who reaches for love in response to his work's demise.

The Master Builder

1960

A Doll's House poster
NR

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer, having fraudulently borrowed money to save her husband, is forced to reveal her secret and, in doing so, reassess her life as it stands. This production, directed by Carrie Cracknell, was captured by Digital Theatre live at London’s Young Vic theatre.

A Doll's House

2012

A Doll's House poster
7.0

Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed lives in fear of her husband's finding out and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.

A Doll's House

1973

Enemy of the People poster
2.0

Enemy of the People centers on a small former manufacturing town that has been revitalized as a resort destination due to its natural hot springs. When a scientist, who is the sister of the town’s Mayor, finds that the water is contaminated and the baths must be shut down, a democratic society confronts, in public and in private, a complex ethical crisis.

Enemy of the People

2021

The Lady from the Sea poster
8.0

Norwegian TV-Drama based on Henrik Ibsen's play. All the choices you take, have consequences for both oneself and others.

The Lady from the Sea

1979

Ghosts poster
NR

Helene Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helene plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.

Ghosts

2023

La donna del mare poster
9.0

Married to a doctor and mother of two daughters, a woman continually rethinks her relationship with a sailor.

La donna del mare

1984

No artwork available
8.0

When a scientist learns that his town's lucrative springs present a serious health threat, the community refuses to listen to him.

An Enemy of the People

1990

Ghosts poster
NR

Adaptation of Ibsen’s play. Mrs Alving’s son is ill - but what with?

Ghosts

1977

Peer Gynt poster
7.4

Based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, Gynt, an imaginative young man looked down upon by most everybody, is banished from his village for running away with a bride on her wedding day.

Peer Gynt

1941

John Gabriel Borkman poster
NR

John Gabriel Borkman, a former bank director, was imprisoned for fraud but believes he was wrongly convicted. He had invested clients' money in a major industrial venture but was reported by his friend Hinkel, who was in love with Borkman's former fiancée, Ella Rentheim. Borkman now lives on the first floor of the house, with his estranged wife, Gunhild, living on the ground floor. He occasionally receives visits from his friend Wilhelm Foldal, who supports Borkman's delusion that the bank will reinstate him. In his youth, Borkman betrayed his love for Ella by marrying her twin sister Gunhild to advance his career. After his conviction, Ella took care of their son Erhart and now wants him to live with her and take her name. Borkman agrees, but Gunhild refuses to let her sister take their son.

John Gabriel Borkman

1982

Hedda Gabler poster
NR

Hedda Gabler, the spoiled daughter of a general, marries the staid scholar Tesman in the hope that he will develop into an important personality. But Hedda is an eccentric woman and her expectations of life are insatiable. She has no sympathy for her husband's work and quickly becomes bored in her petty bourgeois circumstances. Then Ejlert Lövberg, a colleague of her husband's, returns to the city he left because of his dissolute lifestyle. They have known each other since those days, but Hedda feared a scandal if she had returned his passionate love. Ejlert is rehabilitated thanks to Thea, the woman at his side. But Hedda's love for him reawakens and, driven by her nature to determine the fate of other people, she drives Ejlert to disaster.

Hedda Gabler

1980

Casa di bambola poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Casa di bambola

1968

The Master Builder poster
NR

Through talent and hard work, Halvard Solness has achieved no small measure of fame and fortune. But the unexpected return of Hilde Wangel to his life threatens to shake the foundations of his success. ATC On Stage|On Screen presents one of Ibsen’s most fascinating and enigmatic works in a new hybrid of theatre and film. In this high quality studio adaptation of The Master Builder, a successful builder and property developer has his creative flame reignited by a young woman from his past, with dramatic consequences. Ibsen specialist and ATC Artistic Director Colin McColl presents a magnificent work from a master playwright, in an innovative post-COVID-19 format.

The Master Builder

2020

Un enemigo del pueblo poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Un enemigo del pueblo

1981

No artwork available
8.5

Based on a play by Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian)

John Gabriel Borkman

1978

The Master Builder poster
NR

Architect Halvard Solness, despite his successful career, struggles with aging, loneliness, and an existential crisis. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Hilda, leading to a series of unforeseen events.

The Master Builder

1980