Few dramatists have been so important to the direction of modern theatre as Henrik Ibsen. The downwardly mobile son of a patrician family, Ibsen soon left Norway to write plays in Germany and Italy. There he found an identity and success of his own, firstly in the 1860s and early 1870s with a series of romantic and historical plays, then in the late 1870s and early 1880s with a series of "problem plays" which tackled contemporary social issues.
Some of Ibsen's most famous characters and plays come from these earlier years. Later in his career, however, Ibsen would turn away from social criticism and towards the contemplation of the depths of the human spirit. Plays such as The Wild Duck...
