Ghosts

"An open drain:  a loathsome sore unbandaged;  a dirty act done publicly; a lazar-house with all its door and windows open.  Ibsen's melancholy and malodorous world".  (Daily Telegraph).

Ghosts was first performed in 1891.  As can be seen from the above quote, this private production generated a storm of critical abuse.  As a result the play was not publicly performed until 1914.  It is now rightly accorded the classic status common to all of Ibsen's plays.

The writer's familiar targets of hypocrisy, personal responsibility and the position of women in society are all here, but the principal concern of the play is "how do we live and at what price".  The burdens of meaning, though, do not weigh the piece down and it would be a mistake to think that dark means dull, while Ibsen probes he also entertains.