Two Stages, One Vision: Stefan Larsson’s Adaptation of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf in Sweden and Cyprus

Maria Hamali* and Maria Sehopoulou**

Abstract

This essay examines Stefan Larsson’s acclaimed adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, which premiered at Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in 2024 before being restaged at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) in 2025. Larsson’s contemporary adaptation relocates the drama from nineteenth-century Norwegian fjords to modern settings in Sweden and Cyprus respectively, employing innovative stagecraft including live cinematography and rotating stages. The cross-cultural collaboration reveals how canonical theatrical texts acquire renewed relevance when refracted through different linguistic and cultural contexts. The production’s success in both Scandinavian and Mediterranean settings demonstrates the universal resonance of Ibsen’s exploration of marital dissolution, grief, and psychological intimacy, whilst highlighting the transformative potential of transnational theatrical practice.

Keywords: cross-cultural theatre, contemporary Ibsen, cultural adaptation, transnational theatre, Stefan Larsson

Henrik Ibsen, Norway’s most celebrated playwright, ranks among the world’s most frequently staged dramatists. This is particularly true in Scandinavian countries, where he is hailed as a leading figure of the Modern Breakthrough movement. Nevertheless, his theatrical canon reveals significant disparities in performance frequency, with several works remaining considerably less produced than others of his canonical masterpieces.

Sweden’s national theatre, the Royal Dramatic Theatre (commonly called Dramaten), has mounted forty-eight productions of his works since 1908. Given this extensive history of Ibsen productions, it is remarkable that Little Eyolf only received its premiere at Dramaten in 2024. Although Little Eyolf is classified among Ibsen’s mature realistic plays, it is regarded as one of his most enigmatic and challenging plays. The drama centers on the rapid decline of Alfred and Rita Allmers’ marriage as they struggle with the burden of guilt over their son Eyolf’s accident and tragic death.

Since its composition, Little Eyolf has perplexed Ibsen critics, who have questioned both its structural framework and the narrative progression of the final act, particularly the abrupt transformation that Rita and Alfred undergo in the play’s finale. Especially in the epilogue, where the words and gestures of Rita and Alfred fade away as if muted against the gathering dusk, the performance appeared static and anti-dramatic to critics (Helland 244). However, the author’s modernist sensibility required neither thunderous climaxes nor tragic catastrophes as its culmination; after all, death has already visited the Allmers’ family at the close of the first act, and the remainder of the work is built upon the subsequent internal fractures within the characters (Caretti 72). Here, Ibsen deliberately refuses to conform to the established theatrical conventions of the nineteenth century, which demanded shocking developments in the final moments (de Figueiredo 589). Meanwhile, the philosophical tenor of the work seems to hover between dramatic genres, with its ironic undertones and exploration of inner psychological anguish. Consequently, Little Eyolf prefigures the dramaturgy of the twentieth century, marking a significant shift from traditional theatrical expectations toward a more introspective and psychologically nuanced form of drama (Moi 196–98).

Given the play’s infrequent production history in Sweden, Stefan Larsson’s decision to tackle this challenging play represents both an artistic risk and an opportunity to introduce Swedish audiences to Ibsen’s introspective late drama. Director Stefan Larsson undertook both to translate and direct Little Eyolf for the production at Dramaten, ultimately creating his own distinctive adaptation. He relocates the narrative from Ibsen’s Norwegian fjords to the Swedish archipelago, where Alfred’s journey of self-discovery unfolds among the interconnected islands, while transposing the temporal setting from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Recognized as one of Sweden’s most distinguished theatre directors, Larsson has earned acclaim for his ability to create productions that resonate with both audiences and critics alike. His extensive body of work includes notable productions of Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm (Dramaten 2013) and Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage (Dramaten 2009), experiences that proved instrumental in shaping his interpretive approach to Little Eyolf. Moreover, while serving as artistic director of Det Nationale Scene in Bergen (2020–23), he enlisted acclaimed German director Michael Thalheimer to stage Little Eyolf for Norwegian theatergoers.

Although Larsson also directed The Wild Duck at Dramaten in 2000, it is Rosmersholm and Little Eyolf that he sees as a uniquely compelling pair within Ibsen’s canon. These two rarely staged works, he notes, share striking thematic affinities. “They are more morbid,” Larsson observes, “with hints of incest, rich in symbolism in their structure, and charged with an underlying Freudian tension.” For him, these plays stand apart, not only for their psychological depth and unsettling atmospheres but also for how they resist easy interpretation (Savvinidis “Stefan Larsson”). 

Larsson’s rich directorial portfolio includes three notable productions of Ingmar Bergman’s plays: Autumn Sonata, Scenes from a Marriage, and Fanny and Alexander. The first two were staged at the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in 2009, while Fanny and Alexander premiered in 2010 at the Aarhus Theatre in Denmark, where Larsson was serving as artistic director at the time. The production was later brought to Dramaten in 2012. In addition to directing Bergman’s works, Larsson also acted in several of the legendary filmmaker’s stage productions. During the mid-1980s, he appeared in King Lear (1984) and Hamlet (1986) and later took on the role of Mortimer in Schiller’s Maria Stuart (2000) (Dufna).

Before his death, Bergman personally encouraged Larsson to direct Little Eyolf. However, to the then-young Larsson, Ibsen’s work seemed peculiar and distant. Yet personal experiences and the traumatic ordeal of losing a child later brought him much closer to the themes of loss and grief that permeate the play.^[1] Beyond his personal experience, which brought distinctive weight to his interpretation of Ibsen’s work, Larsson sought to illuminate how “disaster forces the married couple to get to know each other again” (Lundström 5). This exploration of catastrophe as a catalyst for renewed intimacy—or perhaps painful recognition—became central to his directorial vision, transforming the tragedy of loss into an opportunity for profound marital excavation.

When Larsson eventually chose to embrace the challenge of adapting Ibsen’s enigmatic work,^[2] he perceived it as “a kind of Scenes from a Marriage, strangely timeless and modern” (Törner). Critics recognized this internal connection to his direction of Bergman’s work,^[3] noting that “the intensity lies in the encounters between the lead roles, which stylishly nods to Larsson’s powerful production of Scenes from a Marriage on the same stage in 2009” (Arvas). This observation underscores how Larsson’s directorial approach creates thematic continuity between his interpretations of both Ibsen and Bergman, drawing upon similar explorations of marital dissolution and psychological intimacy.

To illustrate this intimacy more effectively, the production employs live camera work, with successive close-ups projected onto the scenic design consisting of two distinct spaces: a living room and a bathroom. The austere minimalism of these two sets, characterized by their stark white walls that alternate using a revolving stage, provides an effective canvas for both the actors themselves and their live cinematographic projections.

Larsson masterfully orchestrates the fluid interplay between cinematic projections and live theatrical action. As the stage rotates, audiences are drawn first into the intimacy of magnified facial expressions captured on film, before witnessing the seamless transition as the same actors materialize in person, emerging through the doorway to continue the scene in three-dimensional reality. This dual visual approach creates a layered theatrical experience whereby audiences simultaneously witness the performers’ physical presence and their magnified emotional expressions, blurring the boundaries between live theatre and cinematic intimacy. The stark simplicity of the white-walled environments serves not merely as a backdrop but also as a neutral space that amplifies both the raw immediacy of live performance and the heightened emotional detail captured by the camera.^[4]

The neutrally modern scenic design serves Larsson’s adaptation admirably as it aims to illuminate Ibsen’s subtext: the inner motives that shape the dialogue between characters, their subtle implications, hidden desires, and their continuous struggle for self-definition, a quest that, while ostensibly initiated by Eyolf’s presence, ultimately neglects him as profoundly in death as it did in life. The minimalist aesthetic strips away external complications, forcing audiences to confront the uncomfortable truth that even tragedy becomes, for Rita and Alfred, another stage for their ongoing performance of marriage rather than genuine mourning for their lost son. In this way, the production’s visual restraint amplifies the moral complexity of Ibsen’s text, suggesting that the couple’s journey toward understanding is less about processing loss than about using that loss as a mirror for their own unresolved needs and desires.^[5]

Larsson employs the same reductive approach in his adaptation of Ibsen’s text, preserving the dialogue almost entirely intact while strategically modifying specific textual elements to establish contemporary parallels for Ibsen’s characters. The most significant of these interventions was the elimination of the metaphysical figure of the Rat Wife and her replacement with the grounded character of Eyolf’s Grandmother. The Rat Wife’s enigmatic symbolic presence had perplexed critics since the play’s original composition, as her mystical dimension seemed to rupture the realistic framework that otherwise focuses on sexual and familial relationships, disappointment, loss, and guilt (Ewbank 133). This substitution reflects Larsson’s broader directorial philosophy of anchoring Ibsen’s psychological realism in recognizable contemporary terms. By replacing the otherworldly Rat Wife—whose folkloric associations with death and seduction operate on a mythic level—with the tangible figure of a grandmother, Larsson eliminates what many have considered an anomalous intrusion of the supernatural into an otherwise psychologically grounded drama. The grandmother figure maintains the generational perspective of the original character while remaining firmly within the realistic parameters that define the rest of the play, thus creating a more cohesive dramatic universe that aims to speak directly to modern audiences’ understanding of family dynamics and trauma. However, this adaptation choice arguably diminishes the dramatic catalyst function that the Rat Wife serves in Ibsen’s original. Τhe grandmother figure lacks the sinister, almost hypnotic power that makes the Rat Wife such a compelling and disturbing force in precipitating the tragedy. The result is a more close-knit realistic framework, but one that potentially sacrifices some of the play’s darker symbolic resonance and dramatic intensity.

The adaptation similarly relocates the tragic scene of Eyolf’s drowning, shifting it from the dramatic Nordic fjord, where the original text has his small body swept away by treacherous undercurrents and swallowed by the unforgiving depths of the sea, to the starkly mundane environment of a fountain in the town square, where he is simply spending time with his grandmother. This geographical and contextual shift fundamentally alters the symbolic weight of the tragedy, moving from the sublime terror of nature’s vastness to the heartbreaking ordinariness of everyday accident.^[6]

Larsson presents a visceral theatrical confrontation between Rita and Alfred Allmers as they grapple with whether to remain together, persistently exploring the fundamental question that captivates him about marital endurance: “Is it possible to live with one person for a whole life?” (“From the Rehearsals”). Furthermore, his theatrical exploration of how loss and grief are manifested within the human psyche encompasses the raw, corporeal dimensions of passion and rejection, where bodily functions of sex, blood, urine and vomit are depicted with unflinching honesty, stripped of any romanticization or artifice. Eyolf’s parents, in their desperate need to assign blame for their child’s tragic fate and escape the guilt and the emotional wasteland they now inhabit, engage in a psychologically exhausting confrontation that culminates in what can only be described as “a collision of hatred, longing for intimacy, and morbid desire” (“3 Questions”).

Following the acclaimed performance at Dramaten, the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC), a semi-governmental institution founded in 1971, invited Stefan Larsson to bring his directorial vision of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf to Nicosia with an entirely Cypriot cast. While the play had premiered in Cyprus over two decades earlier in Limassol in 2003,^[7] THOC marked a milestone in 2025 by staging the play for the first time in their repertoire, featuring Larsson’s distinctive adaptation.

The newly appointed nine-member Board of Directors of THOC assumed duties in January 2024; due to the absence of an Artistic Director, board members were immediately required to form an ad hoc artistic committee tasked with curating the repertory for the upcoming theatre season.

One of the central pillars of the Board’s strategic plan was to foster the Organisation’s outward-looking orientation, emphasizing collaborations with leading practitioners in the field of theatre and the cultivation of transnational partnerships, particularly with other national theatres.

Within this framework, the critical and artistic success of Little Eyolf, adapted and directed by Stefan Larsson at Dramaten, resonated all the way from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean South. Despite the risks such a decision entailed, the Board proposed that Larsson restage the production in a radically different setting, with Cypriot actors and creatives, and for a very different audience from that of Sweden. The choice of Stefan Larsson and Little Eyolf aligned perfectly with the Organisation’s artistic aspirations, as it simultaneously met multiple, diverse criteria: a collaboration with a director of international acclaim who would be working in Cyprus for the first time; a production that would connect the Cypriot state theatre with Dramaten; the facilitation of institutional exchange with Dramaten; the presentation of a canonical Ibsen text for the first time in THOC’s history;^[8] and the exploration of innovative scenographic and directorial modalities within the framework of the smaller, flexible black box stage Nikos Charalambous.The production received support from both the Swedish and Norwegian embassies in Cyprus, which also contributed to the broader programme of events that accompanied the staging.

While Larsson accepted the invitation, the cross-cultural collaboration between the Swedish director and the Cypriot theatre company navigated significant logistical and artistic complexities through innovative solutions. THOC, as a smaller institution with more limited resources than Dramaten, was tasked with materialising Larsson’s vision within the constraints of its technical infrastructure and financial capacity. The major challenges were the scenographic requirements, which included the construction of a rotating stage, the integration of live video capture, and the implementation of high-spec lighting systems.

Although the Nikos Charalambous stage is a black box theatre akin to Dramaten’s Lilla Scenen, it lacked the permanent mechanical infrastructure to support a rotating platform. This necessitated the immediate design and construction of such a mechanism within a feasible budget. Following extensive research and consultation with private firms and the University of Cyprus, due to high cost, THOC’s technical team undertook the construction of a custom-built rectangular rotating stage, within the approved budget. The challenge was twofold: the platform, anchored on a central axis, needed to sustain the full weight of the set and performers, while ensuring the mechanism remained invisible to the audience.

Additional complications arose from the integration of live cinematography projected directly onto the set, as well as from the lighting design, which required advanced programming capabilities and specialized equipment not readily available to the Organisation. Nevertheless, through close collaboration with Larsson’s artistic team, including set designer Sven Haraldsson, lighting designer and technical consultant Torben Lendorph, and video artist Andrea Grettve, and through the dedicated efforts of THOC’s technical personnel and crew,^[9] these obstacles were gradually overcome. The production not only realised Larsson’s directorial vision but also pushed the Organisation’s technical and artistic capacities into new territory.

While Larsson was initially tasked with transferring the conceptual framework of his Swedish production, he ultimately treated the THOC version as a completely new project, viewing it perhaps as an opportunity to push his vision even further. One of his major challenges was to communicate his adaptation to Cypriot actors and to do so in the Greek language. The casting process was conducted through closed auditions, with Larsson personally selecting a shortlist of two to three actors per role. Seeking specific qualities for the acting ensemble, he held in-depth conversations with each candidate, touching on themes such as life, theatre, love, marriage, and parenthood (Savvinidis, “Stefan Larsson”), before finalizing the cast.^[10]

Language played a pivotal role in the success of the production. Larsson’s Swedish adaptation required translation into Greek for both rehearsals and performances. The task was entrusted to Margarita Mellberg, one of the most esteemed translators of Scandinavian dramaturgy in Greece. Mellberg, who was present at the initial table readings, highlighted in a special pre-premiere panel discussion^[11] the complexities of her task: those of translating not from Ibsen’s original Norwegian text, which she knew well, but from Larsson’s contemporary Swedish adaptation, which re-situated the Allmers’ family to a modern Scandinavian setting. Her task was to transpose this into contemporary Greek and relocate the dramatic action to a present-day apartment in Nicosia.

Working in this new environment, Larsson became increasingly aware of how the Mediterranean setting transformed the affective register of the performance. Working with actors shaped by different cultural norms, emotional vocabularies, and social expectations than those of his Swedish cast, Larsson noted a shift in the dynamics of interpretation. In a recent interview, he remarked: “I’m not sure, but I feel this text might work even better on Greek soil. I believe it contains some ancient Greek resonances. Its roots go back to Tragedy. Something tells me that people here understand, more naturally and more deeply, the rage and the violence embedded in the text, more so than in the emotionally reserved North, where such elements tend to be processed more intellectually. I think the play finds more fertile ground here” (Savvinidis, “Stefan Larsson”).

This remark encapsulates one of the key tensions and potentialities of transnational theatrical practice: the ways in which canonical texts, when refracted through new linguistic, cultural, and institutional lenses, may acquire renewed relevance and urgency.

The casting process was followed by a two-week period of readings and rehearsals with the Cypriot co-director Maya Kyriazi. Then, an intensive six-week rehearsal period ensued, one that proved fruitful and creatively stimulating not only for the director but for the entire production team, especially the actors. This period offered them the opportunity to engage with a different methodology and approach toward achieving the desired interpretive outcome. It is no coincidence, after all, that Larsson has frequently referred to himself as “an actors’ director,” maintaining that the most valuable aspect of directing lies in personal collaboration with actors, meticulous preparation, and the process of rehearsal, an approach clearly influenced by Bergman (“Stefan Larsson on Alpha News Live”).

In a personal conversation with leading actress Margarita Zachariou, this almost obsessive level of engagement between director and actors was immediately confirmed. Despite her extensive experience in both theatre and film, Zachariou remarked that she had never worked with a director who so deeply loves, respects, and admires the work and vulnerability of the actor. Always impeccably prepared, even down to the smallest detail for every rehearsal, Larsson enters the space having already envisioned the direction of both the staging and each individual performance. Yet, he never imposes this vision. Particularly in a work as emotionally violent as this one, his aim was for everything to emerge with organic truth. His own tragic personal experiences became the vehicle through which he conveyed the emotional weight carried by the Allmers, as well as the subtle gradations and contradictions of grief, all with utmost professionalism and full fidelity to Ibsen’s text. A revealing challenge for the cast was the need to continuously balance their live performance with their presence on camera. The latter was projected onto the scenographic dividing wall whenever the actors were not visible to the audience, adding a cinematic layer to the theatrical experience.

The official premiere of Little Eyolf took place on March 28, 2025, in the packed Nicos Charalambous auditorium, in the presence of the director. What followed were two months of sold-out performances, many of them double showings, due to high audience demand. The production later toured other cities on the island, and it is most likely to be revived for another two months next fall. According to the critic Y. Savvinidis, while remounting a previously tested and successful directorial vision might be considered a safe artistic venture, it can in fact pose greater risks than a new production, particularly if it fails to resonate in its new cultural setting (Savvinidis, “The Risk”). In this case, however, the Cypriot rendition of Little Eyolf appears to have offered the director the opportunity to redefine the play’s boundaries. On the one hand, it gave Cypriot audiences a glimpse into how Ibsen is interpreted in Scandinavia; on the other, it allowed for a Mediterranean reading that foregrounded themes such as grief, guilt, romantic and familial relationships, social hypocrisy, and individualism within a different cultural framework. According to Savvinidis “what is certain, is that a cross-cultural dialogue has been ignited” (Savvinidis, “The Risk”), affirming the director’s belief that theatre is a form of democratic artistic exercise—and perhaps the most vital exercise in democracy itself (Savvinidis, “Stefan Larsson”).

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Christine Sundberg, librarian at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, for granting permission to use photographs and promotional video material from Stefan Larsson’s productions of Little Eyolf.

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Endnotes

^[1] As Larsson reflects on loss and grief: “For a long time I didn’t believe it was possible to survive having lost a child. But here I am, having survived. […] When I was six years old, I lost a brother who was four and became very abandoned by my parents who went into mourning. That trauma is the greatest one for me; that’s where my wound lies. The strange thing is that today I share that experience and grief with my parents”. Irena Kraus, “Stefan Larsson in Conversation with Irena Kraus” [Stefan Larsson i samtal med Irena Kraus], Dramaten. Accessed 6 May, 2025.

^[2] The premiere of the play occurred on 31 January 2024 at the Little Stage (Lilla Scenen) of Dramaten. Artistic team: Set design: Sven Haraldsson; Costume: Nina Sandström; Lighting: Torben Lendorph; Sound: Jakob Wilhelmson; Film photographer: Andrea Grettve; Wig and make-up: Nathalie Pujol; Dramaturg: Irena Kraus. Cast: Erik Ehn as Alfred; Karin Franz Körlof as Asta; Irene Lindh as Grandmother (Mormor); Hannes Meidal as Per; Livia Millhagen as Rita; Eyolf: Sam Larsson Herrgård/ Melker Pernfors Serngard/Lars Adsten.

^[3] “The overall effect, with its close-ups, recalls something Bergmanesque,” notes the critique of Svenska Dagbladet. Lars Ring, “Little Eyolf. Despite Flesh and Tears, One Remains Unmoved” [Lille Eyolf. Trots hud och tårar blir man inte berörd], Svenska Dagbladet, 2 February, 2024, p. 25.

^[4] In this way, the production achieves the goal of “toning down the theatrical so that even the subtle can reach the back rows of the auditorium, that is, to zoom in on the hidden, in a double sense.” Cecilia Djurberg, “Helena af Sandeberg is really excellent on stage. Ghosts wins over Little Eyolf when both Stadsteatern and Dramaten perform Ibsen” [Helena af Sandeberg är riktigt jävla bra på scen. Gengångare vinner över Lille Eyolf när både Stadsteatern och Dramaten spelar Ibsen], Aftonbladet, 2 February 2024. Accessed 11 May 2025. 

^[5] As the critic from Expressen newspaper observes regarding the Allmers couple’s progressive transformation that Larsson successfully portrays in his production: “Rita and Alfred realise that beyond the enchanted circle of their own desires exists a world with other people who suffer. But they also realise that it is not out of love that they want to help, but for their own sake. Beautiful, Larsson.” Maria Edström, “Capturing Demons” [Infångande demoner], Expressen, 2 February 2024, p. 7.

^[6] As the critic astutely observes: “Stefan Larsson has peeled and peeled, translated and processed it to the bone and exposed the big questions about passion, shame and guilt and the meaninglessness of a child’s death and the longing for meaning in life itself”. Caroline Krook, “Little Eyolf at Dramaten is Credible in our Time” [Lille Eyolf på Dramaten är trovärdig i vår tid], Kyrkans tidning, 7 February 2024. Accessed 12 May 2025.

^[7] For information on the 2003 Cypriot premiere of Little Eyolf (dir. Varnavas Kyriazis) by Limassol Theatre Development Company (ETHAL)—the first professional theatre company in Limassol’s history and the first professional company created outside the capital—see here. Accessed 8 May 2025.

^[8] Since the establishment of the Organisation in 1971, the following plays by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen have been presented by THOC: Ghosts (1973), A Doll’s House / Nora (1974), Hedda Gabler (2004), Ghosts (revived in 2008), An Enemy of the People (2014), and The Lady from the Sea (2017). The last two productions were staged at the Organisation’s newly inaugurated, purpose-built premises, which began operating in 2012 (THOC Archive).

^[9] In the THOC production light design was delivered by Georgios Koukoumas, costume design by Lakis Genethlis, live cinematography was directed by Nefeli Kentoni, while the video, projection, and multimedia design were undertaken by Yangos Hadgiyiannis.

^[10] The final cast: Margarita Zachariou (Rita), Andreas Tselepos (Alfred), Lenia Sorokou (Grandmother), Marina Makri (Asta), Andreas Koutsoftas (Per), Iossif Katsoulakis (Eyolf).

^[11] The discussion was held on March 21st under the title “Modern approaches on Henrik Ibsen” with the participation of Dr Maria Sehopoulou, the translator of the play Margarita Mellberg and the director Stefan Larsson and was supported by the Swedish and Norwegian Embassies.

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Arvas, Maina. “Winding Production of Challenging Ibsen Drama. The Loss of a Child is Gripping in Little Eyolf” [Vindlande uppsättning av knepigt Ibsendrama. Förlusten av ett barn griper tag om strupen i Lille Eyolf]. Dagens Nyheter, 2 Feb. 2024, p. 8.

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de Figueiredo, Ivo. Henrik Ibsen: The Man and the Mask. Translated by Robert Ferguson, Yale UP, 2019.

Djurberg, Cecilia. “Helena af Sandeberg is really excellent on stage. Ghosts wins over Little Eyolf when both Stadsteatern and Dramaten perform Ibsen” [Helena af Sandeberg är riktigt jävla bra på scen. Gengångare vinner över Lille Eyolf när både Stadsteatern och Dramaten spelar Ibsen]. Aftonbladet, 2 Feb. 2024. Accessed 11 May 2025.

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Lundström, Jacob. “Stefan Larsson: ‘I Never Want to Be Theatre Director Again’” [Stefan Larsson: ‘Jag vill aldrig bli teaterchef igen’]. Dagens Nyheter, 31 Jan. 2024, p. 5.

Moi, Toril. “‘Something that Might Resemble a Kind of Love’: Fantasy and Realism in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf.” Understanding Love: Philosophy, Film, and Fiction, edited by Susan Wolf and Christopher Grau, Oxford UP, 2014, pp. 185–207.

Ring, Lars. “Little Eyolf. Despite Flesh and Tears, One Remains Unmoved”[Lille Eyolf. Trots hud och tårar blir man inte berörd]. Svenska Dagbladet, 2 Feb. 2024, p. 25.

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———. “The Risk of the Conventional Path” [Το ρίσκο της πεπατημένης]. Phileleftheros, 6 April 2025. Accessed 4 June 2025.

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*Maria Hamali studied Modern and Byzantine Greek Literature, and obtained a Master’s Degree, followed by a PhD, in Theatre Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is an Adjunct Academic Staff of the Open University of Cyprus, a theatre critic and member of the International Association of Theatre Critics. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Theatre Organisation of Cyprus (THOC). 

**Maria Sehopoulou holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of Athens, where she graduated with highest honors and distinction. She has taught theatre history and dramaturgy at undergraduate and graduate levels at various Greek universities, including Athens, Peloponnese, and Crete. Currently, she serves as collaborating educational staff at the Hellenic Open University’s Performing Arts programme and teaches at the University of Athens Theatre Studies Department. She has participated in postdoctoral research programmes and has published extensively on European dramaturgy, with particular focus on Scandinavian theatre, and Modern Greek theatre.

Copyright © 2025 Maria Hamali and Maria Sehopoulou
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #31, June 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.