''The League of Youth'' ( no, De unges Forbund) is a play by

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

finished in early May 1869.Watts, Peter (1965). ''A Doll's House and Other Plays'', Penguin Classics. See "Introduction". It was Ibsen's first play in colloquial prose and marks a turning point in his style towards realism and away from verse. It was widely considered Ibsen's most popular play in nineteenth-century

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Though rooted in serious events of the time, the play was lauded for its natural and witty dialogue, cynical humour and farcical intrigue.

Summary

Taking a different tack than Ibsen's earlier political play ''

The Pretenders Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Fa ...

'', ''The League of Youth'' features a protagonist Stensgaard, who poses as a political idealist and gathers a new party around him, the 'League of Youth', and aims to eliminate corruption among the "old" guard and bring his new "young" group to power. In scheming to be elected, he immerses himself in social and sexual intrigue, culminating in such complexity that at the end of the play all the women whom he has at one time planned to marry reject him, his plans for election fail, and he is run out of town.

Productions

The initial evening's stage production saw loud applause and glowing reviews by critics in the papers. However, by the second performance, both Conservatives and Liberals were saying it was an attack on their party. When both sides showed up for the second performance, a loud ruckus forced the manager to plead for calm and there were continual interruptions. At the play's end, the gas lights were turned off to force the unruly mob out of the theater with fighting continuing into the streets. Though popular and often produced in Scandinavia it has rarely been staged elsewhere. There have been three known productions in the UK: on a Sunday evening in 1900 a single performance by the Stage Society with

Granville Barker Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directi ...

as Erik,

Robert Farquharson Robert Donald William Farquharson (born 1969) is an Australian man convicted of murdering his three sons on 4 September 2005, by deliberately driving his car into a farm dam. Farquharson was convicted in an earlier trial and was sentenced to ...

as Bastian and

Edward Knoblock Edward Knoblock (born Edward Gustavus Knoblauch; 7 April 1874 – 19 July 1945) was a playwright and novelist, originally American and later a naturalised British citizen. He wrote numerous plays, often at the rate of two or three a year, of whic ...

as a waiter. The first ever professional production of the play, in a version by Andy Barrett (published by Nick Hern Books), premiered on 13 May 2011 at Nottingham Playhouse. In 2016 London based theatre compan
Riot Act
produced
critically acclaimed
modern adaption (by playwright Ashley Pearson) in collaboration with Theatre N16 in South London. The production gave the play a New Order-scored aggressive resuscitation which mirrored modern UK politics and was directed by

Whit Hertford Whit Hertford (born November 2, 1978) is an American theatre director, writer, and actor. Film and television Hertford's film career spans three decades and began at an early age, most notably with his appearance in Steven Spielberg's ''Juras ...

. In the United States, a professional production (adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher) was produced at The Commonweal Theatr

in Lanesboro, Minnesota in 2016.

Criticism

Ibsen biographer Robert Ferguson argues that the play is funny because it is liberated from Ibsen's later famous preoccupation with the power of symbol and making every line relevant to the main issue. As Ferguson says, "This is Ibsen's most Ludvig Holberg, Holbergian play, a comedy on human weakness which does not, like some of his later plays on weakness, end in the punishment of the weak."Ferguson, Robert, "Green in the Buttonhole, ''The League of Youth''", ''Henrik Ibsen, A New Biography''. Richard Cohen Books, London, 1996, 152. It's been described as "''

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...

'' in politics".

Real persons and places

It was thought at the time Ibsen may have modeled his character Stensgaard on the rival dramatist and Liberal party leader Bjornstjerne Bjornson, however Ibsen denied any such connection and wrote a letter of apology to Bjornson, but it would be eleven years before their former friendship would be healed. The central character Stensgaard was in fact based on the real-life figure of Herman Bagger, an outsider who arrived in the town of

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Norsj ...

in the 1830s, dabbled in journalism, was elected to political office and was even involved with a scandal involving an IOU note. Other real-life caricatures include that of Daniel Hejre, which was an affectionate portrait of Ibsen's father. Aslaksen the printer was based on a friend of Ibsen's from youth named N.F. Axelsen who printed the paper ''The Man'', which Ibsen had edited for nine months.

Summary

Productions

Criticism

Real persons and places

Resources

Further reading