Finn Iunker (born 27 March 1969) is a Norwegian playwright born in Arendal. He lives in Oslo. Finn Iunker made his debut as a dramatist in 1994 with The Answering Machine. He is amongst the Norwegian dramatists whose plays are most frequently staged, but mostly abroad. He was awarded the Ibsen-award in company with Liv Heløe in 2006, and was up for nomination in 2003’s Nordisk Dramatikerpris. He has just published a collection of short prose; Fortellinger, to rave reviews. He has also written Ifigeneia and Dealing with Helen. [1]
Iunker’s Ifigeneia has sprung from Euripede’s tragedy Iphigeneia in Aulis based on the myth of Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces in Troy who makes the agonising choice of sacrificing his daughter to win favourable winds for his ships sailing against Troy. Parallels are drawn between the cynicism of leaders then and now, lines made more visible by Iunker’s highly modern language with an underlying streak of farce.
His play Ifigeneia premiered in Antwerp where it was produced by the Flemish Theatre company Skagen. Three years later, on 26 October 2006 his play was staged for the first time in his own home country, Norway, where it was produced in Oslo at the Black Box Theatre by the Norwegian theatre company Verk Produksjoner.
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, When We Dead Awaken, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House was the world's most performed play in 2006.
Hedda Gabler is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained backstage. The play has been canonized as a masterpiece within the genres of literary realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama. Ibsen mainly wrote realistic plays until his forays into modern drama. Hedda Gabler is a captivating and well-known play from the 1890s that dramatizes the experiences of the title character, Hedda, the daughter of a general, who is trapped in a marriage and a house that she does not want. Overall, the title character for Hedda Gabler is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theater. The year following its publication, the play received negative feedback and reviews. Hedda Gabler has been described as a female variation of Hamlet.
William Archer was a Scottish writer and theatre critic, based, for most of his career, in London. He was an early advocate of the plays of Henrik Ibsen, and was an early friend and supporter of Bernard Shaw.
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1867. Written in Danish—the common written language of Denmark and Norway in Ibsen's lifetime—it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed Per Gynt, the Norwegian fairy tale on which the play is loosely based, to be rooted in fact, and several of the characters are modelled after Ibsen's own family, notably his parents Knud Ibsen and Marichen Altenburg. He was also generally inspired by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's collection of Norwegian fairy tales, published in 1845.
Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, in a production by a Danish company on tour. Like many of Ibsen's plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th-century morality. Because of its subject matter, which includes religion, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia, it immediately generated strong controversy and negative criticism. Since then the play has fared better, and is considered a “great play” that historically holds a position of “immense importance”. Theater critic Maurice Valency wrote in 1963, "From the standpoint of modern tragedy Ghosts strikes off in a new direction.... Regular tragedy dealt mainly with the unhappy consequences of breaking the moral code. Ghosts, on the contrary, deals with the consequences of not breaking it."
The Lady from the Sea is a play written in 1888 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen inspired by the ballad Agnete og Havmanden. The drama is notable in the Ibsen corpus for introducing the portrayal of Hilde Wangel who is again portrayed in Ibsen's later play The Master Builder. The character portrayal of Hilde Wangel has been portrayed twice in contemporary film as a culturally relevant portrayal, most recently in the 2014 film titled A Master Builder.
J.T. Rogers is a multiple-award-winning, internationally recognized American playwright who lives in New York. Rogers has written several plays including Oslo, Blood and Gifts, The Overwhelming, White People, and Madagascar.
Espen Henrik Skjønberg is a Norwegian actor of stage, screen and television.
Anna Gutto, or Anna Guttormsgaard is a Norwegian director, writer and artistic director living in Los Angeles and Oslo. Her career includes acting, writing, translating, directing and adaptations into English from Norwegian texts.
The League of Youth is a play by Henrik Ibsen finished in early May 1869. It was Ibsen's first play in colloquial prose and marks a turning point in his style towards realism and away from verse. It was widely considered Ibsen's most popular play in nineteenth-century Norway. Though rooted in serious events of the time, the play was lauded for its natural and witty dialogue, cynical humour and farcical intrigue.
The Norwegian Ibsen Award is awarded to promote Norwegian drama and is awarded only to playwrights.
Rogaland Teater is a theatre in Stavanger, Norway.
Kjetil Bang-Hansen is a Norwegian actor, dancer, stage producer and theatre director.
Gerhard Herman Knoop was a Norwegian actor, stage producer and theatre director.
Knut Kirsebom Wigert was a Norwegian actor, known for his many Ibsen roles and the establishment of an Ibsen museum in Oslo.
Gerda Ring was a Norwegian- born stage actress and stage producer. She was the daughter of writer Barbra Ring, and married actor and theatre director Halfdan Christensen in 1922. They were parents of the actors Bab Christensen and Pelle Christensen.
Kjell-Ole Haune is a composer and producer.
Finn Havrevold was a Norwegian novelist, short story writer, children's writer, playwright, illustrator and theatre critic.
Agnes Mowinckel was a Norwegian actress and theatre director. Born in Bergen into a distinguished family, she became Norway's first professional stage director. A pioneer in bringing painters to the theatre, she used light as an artistic element, and engaged contemporary composers. She took part in theatrical experiments, worked at small stages in Oslo, and founded her own theatre.
Frank Robert was a Norwegian singer, dancer and actor. He is particularly remembered for playing the title character in the popular audio play Dickie Dick Dickens.