The glories of Ibsen

Today, since it's Friday, I'm recommending another book, this time taken from the archive of all-time classics everyone should read.  Well, technically its not a book, its a play, and technically not a play, but a playwright.  I will freely admit that one of my favorite playwrights is Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright who wrote his most famous plays in the late 1800s.  He's one of my big four along with Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Arthur Miller, and clearly deserves to be there since he is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare.

Unlike Shakespeare, he didn't alternate between comedies and tragedies, where half his plays have ridiculously happy endings and the other half ridiculously sad endings.  His works are amazing, but they definitely are not comedies, and even if they are brilliant, they can get a little heavy.   Here's a summary of all the works I've seen in a theater or on DVD, and particular note should be paid to the last one, since it has to do with the public's adverse reaction to an important discovery in public health, which might be particularly important for our times.

Ibsen's Most Famous Plays

A Doll's House - A play about the constraints placed on women by the institution of marriage.

Hedda Gabler - A tragedy about two young academics competing for career success and the affections of a manipulative woman.

Peer Gynt - A fantastical story about a life filled with adventure and the meaning of it all.

The Master Builder - A tale of a successful architect whose life becomes intertwined with an attractive young woman even as his own marriage has fallen apart.

The Wood Duck - A reflection about the emotional foundations on which families are built.

An Enemy of the People - The story of a scientist who makes an important public health discovery that falls apart when he faces resistance from society.

Oftentimes, plays get too little attention in favor of novels, because it is often difficult to seem them on stage, but Ibsen definitely shows us this shouldn't be the case.  All the plays described here are classics for good reason and are still relevant for society today.