ABSTRACT
Henrik Ibsen appears, in a historical perspective, to be European drama’s foremost critic of romantic love. From having considered Nora and Hedda immoral, contemporary Scandinavian theater now shows a great understanding for both of them. On today’s Scandinavian theater stages, they are battling with the renegotiation of everyday intimacy in an era when love is not merely something that strikes with a powerfully transforming, intensely felt and materialized feeling that evades all rational explanation, but also ought to be manifested in a more egalitarian practice for co-existence. In this chapter, I discuss this renegotiation of contemporary Scandinavian intimacy in a heterosexual and a lesbian version, respectively, based on two productions: Ibsen’s A Doll’s House in Gothenburg (Sweden) in 2004, and Hedda Gabler in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2006.
