This book addresses a deceptively simple question: what accounts for the global success of A
Doll's House Henrik Ibsen's most popular play? Using maps networks and images to explore the
world history of the play's production this question is considered from two angles: cultural
transmission and adaptation. Analysing the play's transmission reveals the social economic
and political forces that have secured its place in the canon of world drama a comparative
study of the play's 135-year production history across five continents offers new insights into
theatrical adaptation. Key areas of research include the global tours of nineteenth-century
actress-managers Norway's soft diplomacy in promoting gender equality representations of the
female performing body and the sexual vectors of social change in theatre.
