Ibsen is the creator of superb aesthetic structures - works of dramatic art that are fulfilled in theatric performance. In The Ibsen Cycle, I claim the twelve Realist plays (from Pillars Of Society to When We Dead Awaken) form a single tri-partite Cycle – a sequence with, in Ibsen's words, "mutual connections between the plays," best experienced in the order in which they were written. . George Bernard Shaw long ago pleaded: "The plays should, like Wagner's Ring, be performed in cycles." This could be a project for an Ibsen theatre: maybe with four plays each year from each of the Cycle's three groups, like the classic Athenian tetralogies, the Shakespeare History Cycles or Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. It could prove fascinating to see how the Cycle's repertory of actors evolves with its evolving dialectic: how characters, scenes, actions and images repeat themselves like variations on musical themes.  Establishing the scale and complexity of this achievement should be a primary goal of Ibsen interpreters and a great source of pleasure for Ibsen aficionados.  Above all, it will bequeath to the theatre a rich and magnificent art work for endless exploration. 

      Establishing an awareness of the twelve-play structure as, in Ibsen's own words (mostly disregarded) "a Cycle" with "mutual connection between the plays" that should be experienced "in the order in which they were written" requires a collaborative effort. I believe there is a rich and wide-ranging 'Supertext' of cultural reference on which the plays draw, providing the source of their audacious metaphors, which scholarship needs to bring to light. Exploring this supertext and its metamorphoses in the individual plays, offers Ibsen's admirers one of the most rewarding and adventurous imaginative voyages on which interpretation can embark.