All but two of Ibsen’s 27 dramas had their world premières in Ibsen’s own lifetime. The first ten world premières were in Norway. But in 1876-77 Ibsen’s breakthrough as a world dramatist was a fact. On 14 November 1877 Pillars of Society had its world première at the Odense Teater, which was the first stage outside Norway to host the very first performance of an Ibsen play. Subsequently theatres in Sweden, the USA, Germany and Finland joined in a constant race to be the first to put on a new play by Ibsen.
Below you will find a survey of the very first performances of all of Ibsen’s plays. The productions have been arranged chronologically. In the
Repertoire Database you will find more data about each individual production. In addition surveys have been produced of
national premières in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the USA/England and Germany/Austria/Switzerland.
| Play (year of creation) | First performed | Theatre (place) |
| The Burial Mound (1850) | 26 September 1850 | Christiania Theater |
| St. John’s Night (1852) | 2 January 1853 | Det norske Theater (Bergen) |
| Lady Inger (1854) | 2 January 1855 | Det norske Theater (Bergen) |
| The Feast at Solhoug (1855) | 2 January 1856 | Det norske Theater (Bergen) |
| Olaf Liljekrans (1856) | 2 January 1857 | Det norske Theater (Bergen) |
| The Vikings at Helgeland (1857) | 24 November 1858 | Kristiania Norske Theater |
| The Pretenders (1863) | 17 January 1864 | Christiania Theater |
| The League of Youth (1868-69) | 18 October 1869 | Christiania Theater |
| Love’s Comedy (1862) | 24 November 1873 | Christiania Theater |
| Peer Gynt (1867) | 24 February 1876 | Christiania Theater |
| The Pillars of Society (1875-77) | 14 November 1877 | Aug. Rasmussen’s theatre company at Odense Teater |
| A Doll’s House (1879) | 21 December 1879 | Det Kongelige Teater (Copenhagen) |
| Catiline (1849) | 3 December 1881 | Nya Teatern (Stockholm) |
| Ghosts (1881) | 20 May 1882 | Aurora Turner Hall (Chicago) |
| An Enemy of the People (1882) | 13 January 1883 | Christiania Theater |
| The Wild Duck (1884) | 9 January 1885 | Den nationale Scene (Bergen) |
| Brand (1865) | 24 March 1885 | Nya Teatern (Stockholm) |
| Rosmersholm (1886) | 17 January 1887 | Den nationale Scene (Bergen) |
| The Lady from the Sea (1888) | 12 February 1889 | Christiania Theater
Hoftheater (Weimar) |
| Hedda Gabler (1890) | 31 January 1891 | Residenz-Theater (Munich) |
| The Master Builder (1892) | 19 January 1893 | Lessing Theater (Berlin) |
| Little Eyolf (1894) | 12 January 1895 | Deutsches Theater (Berlin) |
| Emperor and Galilean (1871-73) | 5 December 1896 | Leipzig Stadttheater (adaptation) |
| John Gabriel Borkman (1896) | 10 January 1897 | Suomalainen Teaatteri (Helsinki)
Svenska Teatern (Helsinki) |
| When We Dead Awaken (1899) | 26 January 1900 | Hoftheater (Stuttgart) |
| Norma (1851) | 5 November 1994 | Studentersamfundets Interne Teater (Trondheim) |
| The Mountain Bird (1859) | 18 April 2009 | Grusomhetens Teater (Oslo) |
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| Christiania Theater’s production of Peer Gynt: Henrik Klausen as Peer and Thora Neelsen as Solveig. |
