Four plays by Ibsen
My first read of 2026 was a 1981 Penguin Classics reprint of a 1958 translation of four plays by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906): The Master Builder, Rosmersholm, Little Eyolf, and John Gabriel Borkman. This book has sat on the shelves through various house moves, and was bought by my father for a price of £1.75. He had written his name on the inside cover in blue pen. There are no other markings on the book.
While reading the script is never the best way to experience a play, I do enjoy the exercise of placing the characters on the stage in my head and thinking about how I would perform lines in a key moment of dramatic tension or revelation.
That being said, all four these plays contain dramatis personae that can only be described as completely and utterly delirious.
The Master Builder: An aging paedophile, refusing to admit that other people may have talent in his trade, climbs to the spire of the tallest church he has built (which he claims was God’s sole purpose for him), and throws himself off it after singing and waving his hat to his wife.
Rosmersholm: A man has new ideas about his country, but his closest friend threatens to disown him if he doesn’t disavow himself of the new movement. The young woman living at his home, once a friend of the dead wife of this man, reveals that she drove her to suicide because she fell in love with him. He proposes, she refuses, then somehow they both jump to their deaths, hand in hand.
Little Eyolf: Giving up on a book he’s worked on for a decade but never finished, a father resolves to change his ways and put his life’s work into helping his crippled son Eyolf grow into a resilient and intellectual young man. The Rat Wife appears in their home and leads Eyolf into the bottom of a lake before anyone notices he’s gone. After his death, his mother confesses she wishes Eyolf had never been born, because she wants her husband’s undivided attention. They can’t reconcile, the play ends.
John Gabriel Borkman: A man just released from prison for white-collar crime shuts himself upstairs for eight years, looking for any way he could have played the situation differently. Meanwhile, his son, groomed by his aunt over his childhood, has grown into an adult. His aunt and mother fight over his affections, and then he silences them both when he leaves to live his life independently. John Gabriel, inspired by this, takes a walk outside in the cold winter air while screaming about being free, gets confronted by his wife’s sister, who curses him. He promptly keels over and dies.
I don’t recommend seeking out stagings of any of these four plays, except maybe Little Eyolf, because these plays’ main characters are so preposterous in their actions, that it’s not even interesting to try and empathise with them or understand them.