Ibsen: Four Major Plays (A Doll House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and Hedda Gabbler) / Edition 1

by Henrik Ibsen

Overview

Four of Ibsen's greatest and most popular plays come alive in these theatrically-inspired and production-tested translations. Davis and Johnston bring to Ibsen a fresh combination of scholarly insight and a sense of what communicates in the theater. Too often Ibsen in English ends up sounding like a quaint Victorian parlor dramatist. These texts capture some things that are often missed - the wit and humor, the purposeful use of certain repeated images, and the sense of daring that helped make Ibsen a revolutionary figure not just for the 19th Century, but for all time to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2901880399674
Publisher:	Smith & Kraus, Inc.
Publication date:	01/28/1995
Series:	Great Translations for Actors Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

Students and theater artists engaged in either the study or performance of Ibsen's work have traditionally encountered the dichotomy of being faithful to Ibsen's intense realism while struggling with conservative and stilted translations. Davis and Johnston, a director/dramaturg and a professor of dramatic literature, respectively, responded to this inherent difficulty by collaborating to create new and excellent translations of four of Ibsen's most produced plays: A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and Hedda Gabler. Standard English translations by Michael Meyer and Rolf Fjelde are comparatively dense and theatrically thick next to Davis and Johnston's texts. Their efforts are more forceful, given the production-oriented impetus of their original work together. The profanity, for example, found throughout An Enemy of the People is not diluted as it is in most translations, but given full vent. Davis and Johnston have successfully translated Ibsen for the contemporary stage, and this major work will be of significance to anyone involved with the playwright's work.-Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., Tex.

Library Journal