# How Ofted Are Ibsen's Plays Performed Today?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 15, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532 "2006-10-15T15:42:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532/1 "2006-10-15T15:42:38Z")

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I’ve seen “Ghosts”, which was a very good play, but it seems that the other Ibsen plays are rarely performed today. Is “Hedda Gabler” or “A Doll’s House” commonly performed? I’d like to see more of Ibsen- are the movie versions of his plays very good?

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532/2 "2006-10-15T15:54:50Z")

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Rather often in college theater, though probably less so in commercial theater. Here in Chicago, Steppenwolf did “Hedda Gabler” in 2001, and Lookingglass did “A Doll’s House” recently enough that you’ll still get Google hits on it, but I don’t remember when it was. There are always directors playing with Ibsen. Greg Allen of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” fame was doing [“The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen,”](http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/stage/chi-gvh2dfhvf.17sep17,0,2423578.story?coll=mmx-stage_heds), but apparently it closed last night, which bums me out because I didn’t know about it. If only you had asked this question 24 hours ago! ☹

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**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532/3 "2006-10-15T16:13:00Z")

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I did Hedda Gabler in my high school drama class. It was an amazingly bad performance, but still fun 😉

**WhyNot** is right as far as what I’ve seen, though - not so much in commercial theatre, but in the realm of “classics we can drag out when the schoolkids need to perform something”.

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**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532/4 "2006-10-15T16:53:11Z")

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Last year I saw **Hedda Gabler** performed at the BAM Theatre in Brooklyn. It starred Cate Blanchett & Hugo Weaving. (It opened in Sydney and sold out so fast that they decided to take the whole Australian cast and do a limited run in NY as well.) I thought it was great!

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**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slip\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slip_1)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ofted-are-ibsens-plays-performed-today/376532/5 "2006-10-15T22:57:05Z")

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The Partner Slip did Hedda at the Alley Theatre in Houston around 2000. It was a good performance, but a GREAT set (even if the audience only was able to see 20% of it).

He did say he’s done other Ibsen in the past, but it has been a long time. He agrees that they don’t seem to be done often (in his humble experience).