Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20th in Stockmannsgerden in Skien. His mother was Marichen and his father was Knud, a merchant. On 1835 his father gave up his business and the family moved to Venstop, a farm in Gjerpen.

In 1843 he confirmed in Gjerpen church and left home in order to apprentice to Jens Aarup Reinmann, chemist. Three years later his first son was born by Else Sophie Jesdatter.

In 1846 he had an illegitimate child by Else Sophie Jensdatter, a servant.

On 1849 he wrote Catiline which was published a year later.

On September 26, 1850 the first Ibsen staging in history took place; the one-act The Burial Mound was performed at Cristiania Theater. Two years later he started directing productions at Det norske Theater in Bergen.

From 1853 to 1877 he wrote the plays St. John's night, Lady Inger, The feast at Solhoug, Olaf Liliekrans, The Vikings at Helgeland, Love's comedy, The pretenders, Brand, Peer Gynt, The League of Youth, Emperor and Galilean and Pillars of Society and the poems Life on the Upland, Terje Vigen and Balloon letter to a Swedish lady.

Meanwhile he married Suzannah Thoresen in 1858 and his second son Sigurg was born a year later.

He is called "the father of modern drama" because his extremely influential plays dealing with domestic life dealt with some of the most shocking issues of the day - venereal disease, a wife abandoning her husband and children to discover her own worth as a human being, suicide, etc. He also wrote a few verse dramas, among them "Peer Gynt". However, Edvard Grieg's music for the original 1876 production is now performed much more often than is the play.

In 1878 he moved to Rome where he lived for seven years.

There he started writing the circle of his 11 last plays that made him classic; A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the people (1882), The Wild Duck (1884), Rosmersholm (1886), The Lady from the Sea (1888), Hedda Gabler (1890), The Master Builder (1892), Little Ejolf (1894) John Gabriel Borkman (1896) and his last one When We Dead Awaken (1898).

The same year large-scale celebrations took place in Christiania, Copenhagen and Stockholm for his 70th birthday. Two years later he had his first stroke.

His play, "Hedda Gabler" at the Writers Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2014 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Large Play Production.