Just trust that it comes together

Spring 2024, after Peer Gynt on Fjernsynsteateret · three letters, 2024–2025

I dove down into the stacks at the library, and pulled out both Ibsen and a few other things. At this point the only one I knew in detail was A Doll's House, which I had read in school — I hadn't read or seen any other Ibsen play. (I had of course heard a bit about Peer Gynt, the music etc, but I absolutely didn't know the whole plot — was pretty surprised when he ended up in Morocco! ;))

I tried to read an Ibsen play, but I remember giving up after one page and thinking that reading plays just wasn't for me.

The book that helped

Later I found a fantastic short book on "how to read plays", the most important message was to be a little patient, it's often hard to understand the context, the setting, the characters etc from the beginning of the play.

Just trust that it comes together, and keep reading ;)

It's often a bit slow getting started with reading plays, because you have to place the names and make yourself pictures of the people and the scenes, but eventually you get into it.

I love reading in physically old books, so I got some books up from the stacks at the library by Oehlenschläger, who I had never heard of. He wrote very romantic "naive" theater, but I thought it was charming to read, and I liked the musicality of the language (I'm still a very big fan of theater in rhyme!).

Now I've seen Bentein Baardson's production through NRK, read the play, and I'm in the middle of "Gåten Peer Gynt"...

From a letter to the artistic director of Teater Innlandet, August 2024

Two hours

To teachers of Norwegian, November 2024

I'm reading a lot of plays these days, older stuff too (Racine, Voltaire, Herman Wessel, Holberg etc). One of the things that's great is that you can read a play in about two hours, once you get into it a bit. (Doesn't apply to Shakespeare). I think it's just a matter of encouraging some practice through sheer quantity, both among young people and adults.

And it's so doable! You can sit down one evening and actually get through a play, and instead of watching something on TV that's forgotten by tomorrow, you've actually read a play by Ibsen... Which hasn't just given you something in the moment, but is also a part of your cultural understanding, given how often there are references to the plays etc.

One year

I've been through a fair number of Ibsen plays:

Until last year, I hadn't read a single play in my life (apart from "A doll's house" in high school). Last year, I must have read 20+, and I really enjoy it. Shakespeare of course, but Greek tragedy, Ibsen, Holberg, Racine/Corneille/Voltaire, Pirandello...

10 January 2025 · @houshuang

• A Doll's House (seen at Nationaltheatret, and read)
• Peer Gynt (seen Bentein Baardson on TV, and at Nationaltheatret, and read several times)
• Hedda Gabler (seen at the National Theatre and at Nationaltheatret, and ballet at the opera, and read)
• Emperor and Galilean (heard on NRK radio theater and read)
• An Enemy of the People (seen an old American movie, and at Hamar teater, and read)
• The Wild Duck (seen on Fjernsynsteateret)
• The Feast at Solhoug (read, and heard opera!)
• The Lady from the Sea (read, and seen ballet)
• Rosmersholm (read, and seen ballet)

And Ibsen's collected works are on the bookshelf, so just help yourself! ;)