Henrik Ibsen

A Norwegian playwright widely regarded as the father of modern realistic drama, known for turning the stage away from verse melodrama toward prose plays examining the moral and social pressures of ordinary middle-class life: A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler and The Wild Duck are his most performed works. His plays introduced a realistic dialogue register and a retrospective plot structure, unearthing a character's hidden past over the course of the action, that became foundational to the modern dramatic mode as distinct from the classical genres, tragedy and comedy, staged under it.