Nous aurons le plaisir d’accueillir notre professeur invitée Kirsten E. Shepherd (Oxford University) le jeudi 15 octobre (Bibliothèque de l’UFR, 17h30) pour une conférence intitulée : « Burning Down the House:  A Collaboration between Scholars and Theatre Makers on Laura Kieler, Henrik Ibsen, and the Making of A Doll’s House » (cf résumé ci-dessous)

NB/ Si jamais la Sorbonne était toujours fermée, cette séance sera reportée.

J’en profite pour vous rappeler les autres dates de notre séminaire commun autour du thème « Small Things » :

26 novembre : séance Modernité 16-18 (assurée par Anne-Valérie Dulac et Alexis Tadié)

4 mars : séance The Fabric of Narrative  (assurée par Fiona McCann et Thomas Constantinesco)

29 avril : séance Matières Visuelles (assurée par Charlotte Ribeyrol et Anne-Valérie Dulac)

Charlotte Ribeyrol

‘Burning Down the House:  A Collaboration between Scholars and Theatre Makers on Laura Kieler, Henrik Ibsen, and the Making of A Doll’s House‘

Abstract:  This talk reflects on the process of making a new play with Breach Theatre called Burning Down the House that just premiered in Oxford in October 2026, based on my research on Laura Kieler, the real woman whose life circumstances Ibsen used for his play A Doll’s House (1879).  Very few readers and audience members know about Kieler, a young writer whom Ibsen befriended and mentored.  On learning of Kieler’s private misfortunes from his wife, Ibsen used them as the raw material for A Doll’s House–but made some small changes to the real story behind the play that had profound consequences, both for the play’s success and for Laura personally.  In this talk, I discuss those ‘small things’ that Ibsen did, why they made a difference, and how they figure in the new play that Breach Theatre has just devised and premiered.  The broader framework for the talk is the methodology of research-led theatre and performance, and its potential for creative engagement with scholarship.

Kirsten E. Shepherd is a Professor of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford.  She is a visiting professor at Sorbonne University in 2026. Her books include Science on Stage:  From Doctor Faustus to Copenhagen (2006), Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett (2015), and The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science (2020). She has also published extensively on Henrik Ibsen, most recently a new Oxford World’s Classics edition of plays by Ibsen and Laura Kieler (OUP 2025) telling the true story behind A Doll’s House:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-dolls-house-men-of-honour-when-we-dead-awaken-9780198955092?type=listing&lang=en&cc=gb#