James Walter McFarlane (1920–1999)

Dark, claustrophobic plays as a small group of characters are confronted by secrets, people from the past, financial dealings, which overwhelm them.

The Doll's House: A middle class home, a rather silly, flighty wife and mother, a rather patronising yet fond father....and three acquaintances.
Money troubles, deception, a rather melodramatic feel to the whole thing...and Nora realising, at last, that the life she's been leading as the petted, childlike wife is not sufficient for her and she needs to 'find' herself...

Ghosts- A middle class widow, her artist son, who's returned home...and a servant girl and a sanctimonious pastor. The secrets of the past start to unfold...was the widow's marriage so happy as was thought? Why has Oswald quit painting?

Hedda Gabler...probably the most gripping. An entirely amoral wife, her goofy academic husband...and a couple of faces from the past...

Master Builder...my least favourite. I appreciate the arrival of Hilde Wangel was a catalyst to the gloomy builder and his wife, but found her entirely implausible.… (mer)

I've read all these plays before. Ibsen's world view is very dark and gloomy.
Each of these plays deals with the bad outcomes from following "conventional morality." He deals with lies (even well-intentioned ones), hypocrisy and monetary success at all costs. And the costs are great. Unfortunately, his tragedies suggest nothing at all to make things better.

In A Doll's House, Nora is a good little girl who has never grown up. And it seems unlikely to me that she ever will, regardless of which ending one chooses. (The book gives an alternate ending, demanded by the ticket-buying public, that Ibsen hated. See, he's caught in the same trap - success at all costs.)
In Ghosts, the sins of the fathers come to rest on both of his children. In the hands of a different playwright, the closing lines "The sun. The sun." could have been gloriously hopeful. Not the case here.
Hedda Gabler is another girl who never grew up. In fact, she's still a spoiled brat, ruining the lives of everyone else.
And the Master Builder somehow reminds me of the Tower of Babel, which was a high tower built by those who thought they could reach heaven by material means.


… (mer)