When Dr. Stockmann discovers that the waters of a new public spa are toxic, he expects gratitude and glory. Instead, his revelation makes him the most hated man in town.

Henrik Ibsen's timeless story of corruption, pollution and courage opened in David Harrower's powerful new version at the Young Vic, London, in May 2013.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian poet and playwright, was one of the shapers of modern theatre, who tempered naturalism with an understanding of social responsibility and individual psychology. His earliest major plays, Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867), were large-scale verse dramas, but with Pillars of the Community (1877) he began to explore contemporary issues. There followed A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881) and An Enemy of the People (1882). A richer understanding of the complexity of human impulses marks such later works as The Wild Duck (1885), Rosmersholm (1886), Hedda Gabler (1890) and The Master Builder (1892), while the imminence of mortality overshadows his last great plays, John Gabriel Borkman (1896) and When We Dead Awaken (1899). David Harrower's plays include Knives in Hens, Kill the Old, Torture Their Young, Dark Earth (Traverse Theatre), Presence (Royal Court) The Chrysalids (NT Connections), Blackbird (Edinburgh International Festival; West End), A Slow Air (Tron Theatre, Glasgow), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark, (Donmar). Adaptations include Büchner's Woyzeck (Edinburgh Lyceum), Chekhov's Ivanov and Horváth's Tales from the Vienna Woods (National Theatre), Schiller's Mary Stuart (National Theatre of Scotland), and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, Brecht's The Good Soul of Szechuan and Gogol's The Government Inspector (Young Vic). Film credits: Una; Outlaw King.