When We Dead Awaken Book

The end of a great line of plays - the drama that draws together all the puzzles and threads from all the other plays and from all of Ibsen´s own dramas - his life. To understand this abstract play you have to have really read a lot of him. There are metaphors upon metaphors and hints and lines that reflect upon previous characters and endings and as well, it reflects Ibsen´s view of his own life, his struggle, his choices and doubts. I recommend Erling Sandmo´s afterword, that reflect upon all these possible interpretations.

On face value it seems like an easy and straightforward play - but then you haven´t read it thoroughly, it is deep and complex and reflect life it self - we want to reach up, up, up... but to what?

He refers not only to his own plays (he explicitly said that his plays must be read within a perspective of all his other plays), he refers to the great artists living at his time and to the great future beyond... There are explicit references to Wagner in the play. There are references to Nietzsche. Wagner´s last work can be compared to Ibsen´s last work - some fabulous words before the great silence. One might also think of Camus... It is metaphysical and abstract and mysterious and existentialist and absurd. No answers, only questions and the anxiety of living...

Do enjoy his last play, cause it is one of his most interesting ones, he reflects on himself, the artist and how to live and to die...