Henrik Ibsen
A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler — father of modern drama
The inventor of modern realistic theater. A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, and The Wild Duck stripped the stage of melodrama and spectacle and replaced them with the agonies of bourgeois life — marriages, money, secrets, and lies. Every serious playwright from Shaw to Miller to Ibsen's own countryman Fosse works in his shadow.
Key works
- A Doll's House1879— Nora's door slam — heard round the world
- Hedda Gabler1891— A woman trapped by convention
- Peer Gynt1867— Norwegian Faust — set by Grieg