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World premieres and national first performances

On this page, you will find information about the premieres of Ibsen's dramas, including both national premieres and their first-ever performances.

All but three of Ibsens 28 dramas had their world premières in Ibsens own lifetime.

The first ten world premières were in Norway. But in 1876-77 Ibsens breakthrough as a world dramatist became a fact, and several works had their world premieres outside of Norway.

Click on the headings below for more information and for links to details about the productions in our IbsenStage database.

World premieres

Below, you will find a chronological overview of the world premieres of all of Ibsen's plays.

The Burial Mound (1850) - world premiere September 26 1850 at Christiania Theater

St. Johns Night (1852) - world premiere January 2 1853 at Det norske Theater (Bergen)

Lady Inger (1854) - world premiere January 2 1855 at Det norske Theater (Bergen)

The Feast at Solhaug (1855) - world premiere January 2 1856 at Det norske Theater (Bergen)

Olaf Liljekrans (1856) - world premiere January 2 1857 at Det norske Theater (Bergen)

The Vikings at Helgeland (1857) - world premiere November 24 1858 at Kristiania Norske Theater

The Pretenders (1863) - world premiere January 17 1864 at Christiania Theater

The League of Youth (1868-69) - world premiere October 18 1869 at Christiania Theater

Loves Comedy (1862) - world premiere November 24 1873 ved Christiania Theater

Peer Gynt (1867) - world premiere February 24 1876 ved Christiania Theater

The Pillars of Society (1875-77) - world premiere November 14 1877 by Aug. Rasmussens theatre company at Odense Teater

A Dolls House (1879) - world premiere December 21 1879 at Det Kongelige Teater (Copenhagen)

Catiline (1849) - world premiere December 3 1881 at Nya Teatern (Stockholm)

Ghosts (1881) - world premiere May 20 1882 at Aurora Turner Hall (Chicago)

An Enemy of the People (1882) - world premiere January 13 1883 at Christiania Theater

The Wild Duck (1884) - world premiere January 9 1885 ved Den nationale Scene (Bergen)

Brand (1865) - world premiere March 24 1885 at Nya Teatern (Stockholm)

Rosmersholm (1886) - world premiere January 17 1887 at Den nationale Scene (Bergen)

The Lady from the Sea (1888) - world premiere February 12 1889 at Christiania Theater, Hoftheater (Weimar)

Hedda Gabler (1890) - world premiere January 13 1891 ved Residenz-Theater (München)

The Master Builder (1892) - world premiere January 19 1893 at Lessing Theater (Berlin)

Little Eyolf (1894) - world premiere January 12 1895 at Deutsches Theater (Berlin)

Emperor and Galilean (1871-73) - world premiere December 5 1896 at Leipzig Stadttheater (adaptation)

John Gabriel Borkman (1896) - world premiere January 10 1897 at Suomalainen Teaatteri (Helsinki), Svenska Teatern (Helsinki)

When We Dead Awaken (1899) - Wenn wir Todten erwachen, world premiere January 26 1900 at Königliches Hoftheater (Stuttgart)

Norma (1851) - world premiere November 5 1994 at Studentersamfundets Interne Teater (Trondheim)

The Mountain Bird (1859) - world premiere April 18 2009 at Grusomhetens Teater (Oslo)

Svanhild (1860) - world premiere March 14 2014 at Grusomhetens Teater (Oslo)

National first performances

Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the USA, and England are nations with strong and significant Ibsen traditions. The world premieres of several of Ibsen's plays took place in these countries.

Out of 26 dramas, 14 had their world premieres in Norway, two in Denmark, two in Sweden, one in the USA, six in Germany, and two in Finland.

First Norwegian performances

Of Ibsens 27 world premières, 15 were in Norway. The leading stages of the Norwegian theatre throughout history, the Christiania Theater, the Nationale Scene and Nationaltheatret, have let Ibsen put his stamp on their repertoires and contributed to Norways having strong Ibsen traditions.

Below you will find a survey of all Norwegian first performances of Ibsens plays, arranged in chronological order. In our database IbsenStage, you will find more data about each individual production.

(W) = world première

First Swedish performances

When the Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm staged the première of "The Feast at Solhaug" on 4 November 1857, this was the first time Ibsen had been performed in a theatre outside Norway.

Below you will find a survey of all Swedish first performances of Ibsens plays, arranged in chronological order. In our database IbsenStage you will find more data about each individual production.

First Danish performances

Ibsen had all his dramas from and including Brand (1866) published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag in Copenhagen. From then on he was almost more oriented towards the Danish market than the Norwegian. His plays did not need to be translated to be put on in Danish theatres, and Ibsen had a good knowledge of and good contacts in the Danish theatre world.

Below you will find a survey of all Danish first performances of Ibsen`s plays, arranged in chronological order. In IbsenStage you will find more data about each individual production.

First Finnish performances

Uniquely enough John Gabriel Borkman had its world première in Helsinki at two different theatres on the same day, January 10 1897, namely the Suomalainen Teaatteri and the Svenska Teatern.

The same two theatres fraternally alternated in being the first to put on new Ibsen plays in Finland from 1878 and onwards and are the dominant stages in the Finnish Ibsen tradition.

Below you will find a survey of the Finnish premières of Ibsen`s plays, arranged chronologically. In our database IbsenStage you will find more data about each individual production. In those cases in which the first performance was in Swedish, the first performance in Finnish has been listed in addition.

First performances in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Next to USA Germany is clearly the country in the world that has put on Ibsen most. It was also there that he had his first successes outside Scandinavia. Ibsens breakthrough in Germany in the mid 1870s laid the foundation for his breakthrough on a world scale.

Below you will find a survey of the German premières of Ibsens plays, arranged in chronological order. (NB: the first performances in German that took place in Austria and Switzerland have been included). In our database IbsenStage you will find more data about each individual production.

(W) = world première

First performances in UK and USA

Ibsen did not achieve his breakthrough in the Anglo-American part of the world until the end of the 1880s. He had been introduced earlier, both on the book market and the stage, but without any really great success. But once he made his breakthrough in the English-speaking world, his fame had been secured: he was now a world-famous author.

Below you will find a survey of the English premières of Ibsen's plays, arranged chronologically. Some first performances took place in the USA; in these cases the first performance in Great Britain has also been listed. (NB: two of the first performances in the USA were in Danish; however, the first production in English has also been listed there.) In our database IbsenStage you will find more data about each individual production.