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Hedda Gabler

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play in four acts by Norwegian plawright Henrik Ibsen, published in 1890

Key facts

Written by
Henrik Ibsen
Place premiered
Königliches Residenz-Theater , Munich , Germany
Original language
Danish
Subject
A newlywed struggles with an existence she finds devoid of excitement and enchantment
Genre
Tragedy
Setting
Jørgen Tesman's villa, Kristiania, Norway; 1890s

via Wikipedia infobox

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Hedda Gabler ( Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̂dːɑ ˈɡɑ̀ːblər]) is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage. Though initial reviews were negative, it has since been canonized as a masterpiece of literary realism, 19th-century theatre, and world drama in general.

Hedda Gabler dramatizes the experiences of the title character, Hedda, the daughter of a general, who is trapped in a marriage and a house that she does not want. Hedda is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theater, and has been described as a female variation of Hamlet.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hedda Gabler” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.