THE HENRIK IBSEN COLLECTION

Details

• Genre: Classic
• Plot: BBC Classics' The Henrik Ibsen Collection features ten star-studded productions of Ibsen's most famous plays together in one six-disk box set.; ; Considered the father of modern realistic drama, Henrik Ibsen is one of the most important playwrights of all time. His plays attacked the values of the Victorian society in which he lived and were considered scandalous during his lifetime, and the themes he explored - including the independence of women, divorce, suicide, infidelity and sexually transmitted diseases - are still thoroughly modern today.; ; This collection features stellar casts in Ibsen's best-known works, including Ingrid Bergman and Michael Redgrave in Hedda Gabler, Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in Ghosts, Anthony Hopkins and Diana Rigg in Little Eyolf, Denholm Elliot in The Wild Duck, Sir Donald Wolfitt and Leo McKern respectively in two extraordinary productions of The Master Builder, and much more! The bonus features include eight additional plays produced for radio including Ibsen's seminal work Peer Gynt. Put together, this collection is a quintessential part of any theater lover's library.; ; Brand * A Doll's House * Ghosts * An Enemy of the People * The Wild Duck * Hedda Gabler * The Lady From the Sea * The Master Builder * Little Eyolf; ; Descriptions from the insert:; ; Brand; Brand is a bleak and desolate play that challenges the notion of a stern and stoic faith in the will of God. The title character is a pastor who returns to his ancestral home to find the villagers on the verge of starvation. He believes ministering to these poor people to be his calling. Over the course of the play, however, he faces many difficult choices. The decisions he makes, based on his stark and idealistic view of morality, have dire consequences for all the people he touches and, ultimately, for his own embattled soul. ; ; A Doll's House; One of Ibsen's best known plays, A Doll's House caused a sensation when first published, as it provided a critique on the conventions of Victorian marriage. Nora Helmer feels suffocated and belittled in her marriage to Torvald. When faced with blackmail as a result of an attempt to save her husband’s life, Nora decides that the only way to discover the real world is to step outside the illusions within her doll’s house. ; ; Ghosts; The publication of Ghosts in 1881 caused an uproar and almost ruined Ibsen. It was banned across Europe and sales of his other plays plummeted. Its themes of moral degredation – out-of-wedlock children, venereal disease, incest, infidelity, and euthanasia – proved too shocking. The play remains shocking even for modern-day audiences. Captain Alving was a respected man in his community, and on the tenth anniversary of his death, Mrs. Alving is preparing for the opening of an orphanage in his honor. This effort, however, is really an attempt by Mrs. Alving to mask her hidden disgust with Captain Alving who in reality was a cheating, immoral philanderer who bequeathed a deadly legacy to his son Oswald. ; ; An Enemy of the People; Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People as a direct response to the public’s outcry over his earlier play Ghosts. Channeling his feelings into one Dr. Stockman, whose single voice of reason is drowned out by those with paranoid and ulterior interests, Ibsen has no qualms remarking on the irrational nature of the masses and the corrupt political systems which encourage them.; ; The Wild Duck; A devastating, yet bracing look at a family whose proximity to each other belies the decay of their relationships, The Wild Duck is just as modern today as it was when first staged. When Gregors Werle comes to stay with the Ekdals, his idealist nature refuses to tolerate the dreamworld of lies the family is living. However, in his bid to force the Ekdals to see the truth, the skeletons he unearths destroy the family that he wanted to redeem. ; ; Hedda Gabler; Hedda Gabler has just come back from her honeymoon, married to boring but reliable academic George Tesman. Refusing to tie herself down in life and name, Hedda is banking on George being appointed a professorship to secure a better life for the young couple. However, the arrival of cleaned up ex-lover Eilert threatens to destroy everything.; ; The Lady from the Sea; Married to a much older widower with daughters nearly her age, Ellida Wangel starts exhibiting strange and anxious behaviors. When her husband, a doctor, tries to find a cure for her, he finds out that she has a secret with the power to destroy everything they hold dear. ; ; The Master Builder; Halvard Solness is a middle-aged architect whose ruthlessness in his business makes him a hardened individual. Affected by his ambitions are his wife and his colleagues, until a young woman shows up asking for a promised kingdom. Two productions are included, featuring respectively Sir Donald Wolfit and Leo McKern in the title role. ; ; Little Eyolf; Alfred Allmers has spent his whole life writing a book on “responsibility,” a luxury he can afford as a result of his marriage to the wealthy and beautiful Rita. However, much to Rita’s annoyance, his attention isn’t always undivided toward her, as Alfred shifts his focus between his book, their son Eyolf, and his half-sister Asta. As Allmers slowly feels trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, emotions and a painful past threaten to boil over into a terrible finale. ;
• Runtime: 16:07
• Media Format: Series