Wilder as a Playwright-in-the-Making: Adapting A Doll' House

In 1937, Thornton Wilder updated Ibsen' A Doll' House as a present to his friend, actress Ruth Gordon, because she and producer/director Jed Harris felt that William Archer' translation of Ibsen' play was dated. Gordon and Harris believed that more than fifty years after the play' premiere, it could still be successful on Broadway provided a few changes were made—hence the request to Wilder. A close study of the rewriting process proves that his task was more complex and important than what he made people believe, especially so as Wilder' and Ibsen' approaches to the stage rested upon different cultural backgrounds attributable to the distinction between late-nineteenth-century Norway and the post–World War I United States. However, looking beyond their contrasting writing modes—and the paradoxical fidelity that transforming the play entailed—this article starts from the variations between the two versions to examine how rewriting characterizes Wilder as a playwright-in-the-making.