Ibsen Revisited--subtitled “A Piece of Foolishness”--is Floyd Dell’s clever speculation on an alternate ending to Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler. A stranger arrives at an average, middle-class house, eager to meet the infamous Hedda Gabler, who did not commit suicide but instead married Lovberg. As a representative of the International Ibsen Society, the stranger is excited to meet the woman everyone supposed was dead. He believes he will find the same passionate woman that Ibsen wrote about, but the maid who greets him sets him straight: Mrs. Lovberg has become an instructor in Modern Adolescence and a writing assistant to her husband. Originally performed in 1914, “Ibsen Revisited” is an homage to the controversial play, full of allusions and inside jokes that will delight any fan of Hedda Gabler.
Ibsen Revisited guide sections
