Frode Helland

This volume contains ten newly translated scholarly works by the esteemed Ibsen scholar Frode Helland on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. The essays are arranged in roughly chronological order and accompanied by brief introductions. In reflecting over Helland’s many contributions to the field, it struck the editors that there is much value in his early scholarship, but that because most of this was written in Norwegian, it has not reached the international readership it deserves. His scholarly production spans many phases, including an interest in the ironic, the aesthetic, the melancholic, the political, and the global Ibsen.

This book addresses a deceptively simple question: what accounts for the global success of A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen’s most popular play? Using maps, networks, and images to explore the world history of the play’s production, this question is considered from two angles: cultural transmission and adaptation. Analysing the play’s transmission reveals the social, economic, and political forces that have secured its place in the canon of world drama; a comparative study of the play’s 135-year production history across five continents offers new insights into theatrical adaptation. Key areas of research include the global tours of nineteenth-century actress-managers, Norway’s soft diplomacy in promoting gender equality, representations of the female performing body, and the sexual vectors of social change in theatre.

A unique collection of everything that Ibsen wrote about the theatre. Three new productions of plays by Henrik Ibsen open somewhere in the world every week. Moreover, they are adapted into multiple genres: Chinese and Western Opera, Japanese Noh theatre, puppet plays, musicals, dance performances, tourist spectacles, promenade performances, applied theatre, community events, and every possible screen technology. The more successful Ibsen became as a playwright, the more reluctant he was to make public pronouncements about the practice of theatre, but his thoughts on the art form can be gleaned by mining his prefaces, letters, speeches and newspaper articles. For the first time, these fragments have been gathered together in one volume. Arranged chronologically, they throw a unique light on Ibsen's views on theatre production, casting, translation, the business of theatre, and most importantly his own plays. The result is an invaluable resource for those who seek to know what Ibsen himself thought about his work and about the theatre of his time. Ibsen on Theatre is edited, introduced and annotated by Frode Helland and Julie Holledge, with new translations by May-Brit Akerholt. Also included is a foreword by Richard Eyre. Ibsen on Theatre is in the Nick Hern Books ...On Theatre series: what the world's greatest dramatists had to say about theatre, in their own words. 'For anyone interested in Ibsen's plays-actors, directors, students, audiences-[this is] a marvellously accessible compendium of the thoughts of a man I now unhesitatingly describe as a very great playwright.' Richard Eyre, from his Foreword

This book addresses a deceptively simple question: what accounts for the global success of A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen’s most popular play? Using maps, networks, and images to explore the world history of the play’s production, this question is considered from two angles: cultural transmission and adaptation. Analysing the play’s transmission reveals the social, economic, and political forces that have secured its place in the canon of world drama; a comparative study of the play’s 135-year production history across five continents offers new insights into theatrical adaptation. Key areas of research include the global tours of nineteenth-century actress-managers, Norway’s soft diplomacy in promoting gender equality, representations of the female performing body, and the sexual vectors of social change in theatre.

The volume reveals an astonishing richness in the theatrical approaches to Ibsen across the world: it considers political theatre, institutional ‘high art’, theatre for development, queer and transgender theatre, Brechtian techniques, puppetry, post-dramatic theatre, rural village performance and avant-garde touring companies. Investigating varied renegotiations of his drama, including the work of Thomas Ostermeier in Germany and other parts of the world, versions of A Doll’s House from Chile and China, The Wild Duck in Iran and productions of Peer Gynt in Zimbabwe and Egypt, Frode Helland provides a deeper understanding of a cross-cultural Ibsen. The volume gives an in-depth analysis of the practice of Ibsen in relation to political, social, ideological and economic forces within and outside of the performances themselves, and demonstrates the incredible diversity of his work in local situations.

The volume reveals an astonishing richness in the theatrical approaches to Ibsen across the world: it considers political theatre, institutional ‘high art’, theatre for development, queer and transgender theatre, Brechtian techniques, puppetry, post-dramatic theatre, rural village performance and avant-garde touring companies. Investigating varied renegotiations of his drama, including the work of Thomas Ostermeier in Germany and other parts of the world, versions of A Doll’s House from Chile and China, The Wild Duck in Iran and productions of Peer Gynt in Zimbabwe and Egypt, Frode Helland provides a deeper understanding of a cross-cultural Ibsen. The volume gives an in-depth analysis of the practice of Ibsen in relation to political, social, ideological and economic forces within and outside of the performances themselves, and demonstrates the incredible diversity of his work in local situations.

Dramatikk er ikke bare noe som spilles i teateret, det er også en litterær sjanger. Lesningen av dramatekster har sine spesifikke problemer og forutsetninger. «Å lese drama» er en innføring i dramateori og -analyse. Her presenteres ulike innfallsvinkler for å forstå drama som litterær sjanger. Forfatterne fokuserer både på tekstens oppbygning, rommet dramaet fremføres i, språket, kulissene og kommunikasjonssituasjonen. Forskjellige former for drama diskuteres med et rikt norsk og internasjonalt eksempelmateriale. Vi møter både antikkens tragedier og komedier, de store klassikerne til for eksempel Shakespeare, Molière og Ibsen, og moderne dramatikk av blant annet Beckett, Ionesco og Fosse. Slik gir boken et representativt bilde av dramasjangeren både i tid og rom. «Å lese drama» har etablert seg som selve grunnboka om dramasjangeren på litteraturstudier ved universiteter og høgskoler. 2. utgave er oppdatert og nyansert. «Studenterna kommer att ha stor glädje av den i sina första kontakter med dramats historia och i sin träning i att analysera dramer.» Birthe Sjöberg, Norsk Litteraturvitenskapelig Tidsskrift.