Henrik Ibsen

Nora loves her husband above everything. But when she risks her reputation in order to save him, the consequences force her to examine her devotion, and she finds herself struggling for her own life. Henrik Ibsen's ground-breaking play created a huge sensation at its premiere in 1879 and is as fresh and pertinent as ever, with an unfading capacity to shock Disappointments in Love" and Mary Webb's "Precious Bane."

With three plays focusing on the family and how it struggles to stay together by telling lies - and exposing them, Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts and Other Plays is translated with an introduction by Peter Watts in Penguin Classics. In Ghosts, Osvald Alving returns home only to discover the truth about the father he always looked up to, and learns the horrific effect his father's debauchery has had on him. It was Ibsen's most provocative drama, stripping away the surface of a middle-class family to expose layers of hypocrisy and immorality. A Public Enemy sets two brothers against each other when one wishes to make public the facts about the polluted water in the public baths of their home town. And When We Dead Wake tells of an artist meeting an old lover by chance and rejecting his wife, in a symbolic exploration of Ibsen's own literary life and the sacrifices he made in his work. Peter Watts's translation maintains the colloquial tone of the original dialogue. He has also provided an introduction and notes on the texts. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) turned to journalism and playwriting instead of pursuing a university career. Ibsen was one of the earliest writers to dramatise the individual's alienation from society. Although Ibsen was never fully appreciated during his lifetime, he has since come to be recognised as one of the great dramatists of all time and the 'Father of Modern Drama'. If you enjoyed Ghosts, you might like Ibsen's A Doll's House and Other Plays, also available in Penguin Classics.

Collects five plays spanning Ibsen's career, with general introductions, explanatory annotations, criticism, and selections from his correspondence and other writings.

A sparkling translation of Ibsen's penultimate play. On the family estate outside Oslo at the turn of the 19th century, a man paces the floor in an upstairs room. This is John Gabriel Borkman, once a famous entrepreneur, now reduced to penury and self-doubt following a prison sentence for embezzlement. His wife, her twin sister and his son are all trapped in the claustrophobic atmosphere which has descended upon the household – and which can only lead to an explosion as the suffocation becomes unbearable. Stephen Mulrine's English version of Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman was first staged by English Touring Theatre in 2003.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Ibsen's great play about idealism and liberalism undermined by a deeply conservative society. When Rosmer abandons his faith after the death of his wife, his former friends question his morality. But with guilty secrets and deception surrounding everyone, there are tragic results. Henrik Ibsen's play Rosmersholm was first published in 1886 and first staged in 1887. This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated by Kenneth McLeish, with an introduction by Stephen Mulrine.

It should be a happy day in Mrs Alving's household, on the day of her son's return from Paris and the eve of the opening of an orphanage dedicated to the memory of her late husband, Captain Alving. However, as final preparations are being made with Pastor Manders, old family secrets unravel the perceived identities of the key players. In a rigidly structured society the consequences are nothing short of disastrous. Ibsen's Ghosts, in Richard Harris's accomplished new version, offers a bleak view of the human condition.2 women, 3 men

"In a crumbling Calcutta home, two sisters are forced to come to terms with their mother's secret history. In this funny and moving play, award-winning writer Shelley Silas examines how family and culture, time and distance, influence our sense of who we are. Set in the Indian Jewish community, it explores conflicts between old and new, east and west, tradition and truth. If the past is another country, where is home? Calcutta Kosher was produced by the Kali Theatre Company and toured the UK in February and March 2004."