The Passion of Henrik Ibsen

The Passion of Henrik Ibsen[http://www.actnow.webeden.co.uk/#/thepassionofhenrikibsen/4528872231] is a biographical play presented by the at The Broadway Theatre, Catford in 2008 exploring the last few days of Ibsen's life and plays.

In 1901 the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen suffered a severe stroke which left him paralysed and speechless. All of his life, until then, he had been able to communicate his feelings and opinions through his great works. How cruel it seemed that in his last days he was unable to vocalise anything. He died in 1906 but his creative life had died five years earlier. However, the passion of the man lives on through his stunning dramas!

The play begins with a young journalist, Ragnar Allmers, visiting Ibsen’s home the day after his death. He is given access to Ibsen’s journals and discovers a memoir entitled ‘Passions’. As he reads the notes he becomes aware of the dead playwright’s presence. In the journal Ibsen considers his body of work and is haunted by voices from the past crossing over from his creative life into the personal realities.
During the course of the play he is troubled by his famed and sometimes notorious characters including Hedda Gabler, Nora Helmer from A Dolls House, Mrs Alving and her ill son Oswald from Ghosts, Hilde Wangel from The Master Builder, Ella Rentheim from John Gabriel Borkman, Ellida the mysterious The Lady from the Sea and the manic Brand. As he interacts with his characters maybe his true passions and ideas can at last be laid to rest. Or can they?

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