THE STORY: Norway’s most celebrated sculptor, Gustav Vigeland, is commissioned to create the last official bust of its most famous writer—the irascible, imperious, and inscrutable Henrik Ibsen. The two artists, each needing something from the other, wage war over both the creation of Ibsen’s likeness and the prospects of his legacy. With his inimitable wit and insight, Doug Wright explores the nature of artistic success and the fear of being forgotten.
“Very little is known about the 1901 encounters between Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland and famed playwright Henrik Ibsen, when the latter sat for a series of sessions to have his bust sculpted. But that hasn’t stopped playwright Doug Wright, author of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award®-winning
I Am My Own Wife, from imagining what their interplay might have been. The writing is undeniably smart…and the insightful dialogue illuminates both main characters.” —The Hollywood Reporter.
“Even after the lights fade, Wright’s words will not. POSTERITY is likely to keep more than a few audience members up at night thinking about what they’re leaving behind after they’re gone.” —TheaterMania.
“As Doug Wright tells it in his masterful play POSTERITY…all of us must make peace with our own lasting impact…A play that is so hell bent on resurrecting the careers of our idols does something else unintentionally. It reminds us of the rousing careers of some of our own living greats that we often take for granted. And Doug Wright is certainly one of them. He need not worry about tending to his own posterity. His work does so on its own.” —Tribeca Film.
