About the work
Henrik Ibsen wrote Brand in under three months, completing the final act in mid-October 1865; the verse drama was published by Frederik Hegel in Copenhagen on 16 March 1866 and reprinted three times within the year. Conceived purely as a closet drama, it did not receive a complete stage premiere until 24 March 1885, at the Nya Teatern in Stockholm under Ludvig Josephson, with Emil Hillberg in the more than six-and-a-half-hour title role.
Plot
The uncompromising country pastor Brand demands that ‘faith and life must be one’, for himself and everyone around him. He refuses his dying mother last rites unless she gives up her possessions, and clings to his harsh parish even as the climate costs the life of his young son and later his wife Agnes. After leading his congregation to build a grand church, he instead takes them into the mountains, where an avalanche buries him and the deranged Gerd.
Cultural significance
The work is regarded as Ibsen’s literary breakthrough and established his reputation as a major Scandinavian writer. The belated stage premiere was well received by audiences and critics and was performed a further 15 times that same year; to this day Brand remains one of the more rarely staged major Ibsen dramas, owing to its length and demanding title role.