| Agnes Sorma | |
| Birth Date: | c. 1862 |
| Birth Place: | Breslau, Province of Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Death Place: | Crown King, Arizona |
| Other Names: | Agnes Zaremba, Agnes Minotto |
| Occupation: | Actress |
Agnes Sorma (c. 1862 – 10 February 1927), born Agnes Maria Caroline Zaremba, was a German actress best known for originating the playing the role of Nora in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Some sources give 1865 as her year of birth.
Agnes Maria Caroline Zaremba was born in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland).[1] A street in Breslau was once named Agnes-Sorma-Straße in her honour, but when the city was transferred to Poland after World War II, the street was renamed to Ulica Heleny Modrzejewskiej after Sorma's near-contemporary, the Polish actress Helena Modjeska.
In 1884, having performed in regional theatres, Sorma was invited to join the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, as a character actress. Sorma, for whom the part was written, was perhaps best known for playing Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, beginning in 1894.[2] She played Nora in Paris in 1899, where a critic marveled at her interpretation of the character: "Sorma has no need to resort to the tricks and devices of the art of acting; she had but to live and to reproduce that nature which she had assimilated to her own personality," concluding that "a great performance like hers dissolves all criticism into praise, and the highest tribute of all is speechless admiration."[3] She also played Nora in the United States (1897),[4] Italy, Austria, Belgium, Greece, and the Netherlands, and was the first actress known to play the character in Istanbul.[5]
Other stage appearances by Sorma were roles in The Sunken Bell, Der Strom,[6] Liebelei, The Taming of the Shrew, Diplomacy, Chic, Hero and Leander, Die Konigskinder, Mädchentraum, Cyprienne, and Morituri.[7] [8] [9] Many of her performances in New York and Chicago were given in German, for German-speaking American audiences.[10] [11]