Who has the right to tell which stories? Where’s the line between inspiration and exploitation? Does any of that matter, if the story’s good?
Scandinavia, 1879.
Playwright Henrik Ibsen scandalises audiences with A Doll’s House, whose heroine Nora walks out on her family. But to one woman, the story is all too familiar. Laura Kieler, a young writer who had turned to Ibsen for help, finds that he has stolen her harrowing circumstances as the play’s raw material.
As Ibsen’s literary fame ignites, Laura's life falls apart - she must fight to save her reputation and her relationship with her family.
Burning Down the House takes a theatrical flamethrower to Ibsen’s text, revealing Laura’s version of events - a darker story of a serious young writer and her emotionally abusive husband.
This new production by Breach, the acclaimed company behind After the Act (Royal Court) and It’s True, It’s True, It’s True (BBC 4), has emerged from the research of leading Ibsen expert Kirsten Shepherd, Professor of English and Theatre Studies at Oxford University. Kirsten, research assistant Tzen Sam, and translator Gaye Kynoch have been uncovering and translating Laura’s articles, letters and plays to assist Breach in creating this new production.
TORCH has been delighted to support this project since the original KE Fellowship grant in 2021, which allowed Kirsten to work with Breach on the research.
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