Global Ibsen

<p>Ibsen’s plays rank among those most frequently performed world-wide rivaled only by Brecht Chekhov Shakespeare and the Greek tragedies. By the time Ibsen died in 1906 his plays had already conquered the theaters of the Western world. Inviting rapturous praise as well as fierce controversy they were performed in Europe North America and Australia contributing greatly to the theater culture and social life of these continents. Soon after Ibsen’s death his plays entered the stages of East Asia - Japan China Korea - as well as Africa and Latin America. . But while there exist countless studies on Ibsen the dramatist and the significance of his plays within different cultures written mainly by literary scholars none of them examine the ways in which Ibsen's plays were performed or the impact of such performances on the theater social life and politics of these cultures. In <em>Global Ibsen</em> contributors look at the way performances of Ibsen's plays address problems typical to modern societies all over the world including: the inferior social status of women the decay of bourgeois family life and values religious fundamentalism industrial pollution and corporate cover-up and/or the loss of and search for identity.</p>