Reviews from the 1879 Premiere of A DOLL’S HOUSE in Copenhagen

The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.

Photo: Joshua Black

Faedrelandet Copenhagen 22 December 1879 …It was obviously followed with great excitement at least up to the last scene, and the applause was strong both after the first and second acts, as it was after the final curtain. But we do want to ask the honorable audience members, if the impressions they received were of the kind they are used to getting from a genuinely poetical work of art and if the mood in which they left the theatre was the joyful happy and buoyed one …but it seems doubtful to us, if his latest work, its great technical merit and rich psychological interest notwithstanding, is a step in the right direction or-on the wrong track.”

Social Demokraten in Copenhagen 23 December 1879: Finally, an event at The Royal Theatre, and an event of the first class! This play touches the lives of thousands of families; oh yes there are thousands of such doll-homes, where the husband treats his wife as a child he amuses himself with, and so that is what the wives become….Who, after seeing this play has the courage to speak scornfully about run-away wives? Is there anyone who does not feel that it is this young and delightful young woman’s duty, her inescapable duty, to leave this gentleman, this husband, as he slowly sacrifices her on the altar of his egotism, and who fails to understand her values as a human being.”