The Lady from the Sea

Lady from the Sea, The (Fruen fra havet)

    Alternative Title: The Mermaid

    Author: Henrik Ibsen

    First Performance: 1889, Christiania and Weimar

    Published: 1888

    First English Translation: 1891

    Genre: Drama in 5 acts; Norwegian prose

    Setting: Dr Wangel's house and garden in, and a prominence near, a town on a northern Norwegian fjord, 1880s

    Cast: 5m, 3f, extras

Ellida feels so bound to the sea that she swims in it daily and is known locally as ‘the lady from the sea’. She loves her widowed husband Dr Wangel, but does not relate well to her two stepdaughters Bolette and Hilde, and feels stifled in the small town. Her fascination with the sea is now explained: ten years previously she fell under the spell of a strange seaman and entered into a symbolic...

[The entire page is 370 words long]

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