ABSTRACT
The two great parents of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, wrote very differently, but had several similarities in their relationship to nature and their environments. Both had direct knowledge and appreciation of the new science of ecology. They refl ected the era’s gravitation toward the life sciences and emerging evolutionary biology.1 Each was a keen observer of natural phenomena, Ibsen on a larger scale such as gazing at the sea, Chekhov at the immediate level like specifi c fl owers and seasonal sensations; as he understood, medical training brought a scientifi c outlook to his writing.2 Strikingly, forests and trees had a high degree of agency or stakes in a few of their plays. Norway and Russia were two of Europe’s largest exporters of timber, and as a result both countries had considerable concern about deforestation. In a sadly ironic parallel to Chekhov, Ponting reports that in Russia at the end of the previous century, “Agents acting for the British would buy up estates, put a stop to farming and set the serfs to work felling trees until there were none left and the estate would then be sold.”3 Radkau implies that the Norwegian forests were well managed and became an emblem of nationalism: “When they broke away from Denmark in 1814 and created their national identity virtually ex nihilo, they were able to constitute themselves as a Nordic people of the forest and the mountain as distinct from the Danes, the people of the treeless fl atland.”4 Certainly Ibsen embraced this environmental identity of Norway, though he probably would have added the sea, not yet knowing the extent of his nation’s involvement in whale and fi sh depletion.5
