When We Dead Awaken

When We Dead Awaken is the last play written by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Published in December 1899, Ibsen wrote the play between February and November of that year. The first performance was at the Haymarket Theatre in London, a day or two before publication.

According to one of Ibsen´s contemporaries, When We Dead Awaken was written "with such labour and such passionate agitation, so spasmodically and so feverishly, that those around him were almost alarmed ... He seemed to hear the beating of dark pinions over his head." If the great dramatist did indeed have a premonition of his impending death, this play, subtitled "a dramatic epilogue," may be regarded as a sort of last confession, Ibsen's final communication to the world at large.