A Doll's House

by Henrik Ibsen, Simon Stephens (Adapted by), Simon Stephens (Translator)

Overview

A unique combination of performance and commentary. Topics include body language and camera angles; rehearsal vs. performance; set design, costume and make-up; and historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472528247
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Series:	Modern Plays
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) has been described as 'the father of modern theatre'. Most of his early plays were traditional historical dramas. After 'Peer Gynt', a fairy-tale fantasy in verse, Ibsen wrote the rest of his plays in prose, and came to be regarded as the great Naturalist dramatist.

A rounded theatre practitioner, Bryony Lavery's skills extend to performer (most notably as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan at the Drill Hall), artistic director (Gay Sweatshop and Female Trouble), writer of children's theatre (including The Dragon Wakes, Madagaskar, and Down Among the Mini Beast) and of many cabarets (including Floorshow with Caryl Churchill for Monstrous Regiment in 1977). From 1989 to 1992 she was Tutor-Lecturer on the M.A. Playwriting Course at Birmingham University. She is an honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montfort University. 'Lavery is one of the best but most consistently underrated playwrights in the country: her talent is lavish. She is a wonderful technician and always surprising: it is never possible to second-guess her.' – Kate Kellaway, Observer

Table of Contents

The introduction and commentary to the play covers:

Cultural and theatrical contexts
Themes
Dramatic devices
Performance history
Trends in scholarly and popular debate

Editorial Reviews

New, raw, gut-twisting and gripping. Easily the hottest drama this season.

USA Today

Bold, brilliant and alive.

Wall Street Journal

A thunderclap of an evening that takes your breath away.

Time

The stuff of Broadway legend.

Associated Press

Bryony Lavery's faithful new adaptation is emotionally astute” —Sunday Times

“Ibsen's masterwork lays out a provocation to play around inside the heads of its characters - and get inside yours” —The Stage

“An accomplished adaptation from Bryony Levary” —Daily Telegraph

“Lavery's subtly modern version makes light work out of explanation-laden conversations - while understanding crucially that it's what's not being said between husband and wife that counts most” —Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher

Maybe it's Nicholas Rudall's new translation. Maybe it's a matter of the gods. I couldn't put [A Doll's House] down. It's tight, and terse—reads like a fine short novel.

The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities - Lolita Lark

A powerful statement of [Ibsen's] radical beliefs about gender, the folly of idealism and the nature of modern love.

Evening Standard

Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field.

The New Statesman