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The Ibsen Festival in Mumbai




Saudamini Kalra



Indian theatre is no stranger to Henrik Ibsen. For over a century, Ibsen has been one of the greatest playwrights of the world. Like elsewhere, Ibsen has been staged and enjoyed on the Indian stage for many years and so it was at the Ibsen Festival in Mumbai (November 30 to December 3 2014). The multitalented singer-songwriter, actor and self-confessed Ibsen fan, Ila Arun helped bring the Ibsen festival to the city with the support of the Norwegian Embassy in India. Featuring a host of Norwegian and Indian theatre artists, musicians and academicians, the festival was held at the Sophia Bhaba auditorium. It comprised three performances, a music act and a seminar, all sourced and inspired by the work of the man who so effectively anticipated in his work so many of the frustrations that modern society would come to have with itself.  

                  Day I - PEER GYNT and Jazz Performance

The festival kicked off with a one-man adaptation of PEER GYNT by the acclaimed Norwegian actor and singer Kare Conradi. Conradi's tryst with Ibsen began when he was all of fifteen. In this performance, he employed an informal form of storytelling that switched between humorous conversational narration and minimal but moving role-play to present the languid plot spread over five acts. It was an intimate evening of just a little over an hour. The original play could well run into three hours or more. If Ibsen is considered as a classic author by the rest of the world, in Norway he is an institution; a part of the collective national conscience. It was a treat to be presented a work of Ibsen by a fine actor of his own country. Conradi made revealing associations and shared fascinating details related to Norwegian folklore, history and geographical references of the play that enhanced the experience.

PEER GYNT is unusual as far as Ibsen plays go, involving elements of surrealism and fantasy, otherwise rare in the writer's oeuvre, whose work has come to be associated with Realism. The play covers the life of a young farm lad by the name of Peer Gynt who spends his time dreaming and cooking up stories of false heroism, while shunning work and contributing only to his widowed mother's anxieties. After he is banished for having run away with a wealthy farmer's soon-to-be-married daughter, Peer launches on a long and highly symbolic journey that takes him to many lands, bringing him into contact with trolls, exotic women and mystical strangers. He is involved in unethical business trades, until finally he is confronted by old age and self-reckoning.

Conradi is one of those rare gifted actors. He also has a very likeable persona and an enviable vocal range. He is light-footed as a cat with a humble sense of humour and manages to thrill and ease, all in a matter of seconds. Conradi's performance evoked an impressive amount of depth and gravitas from the tale of Peer's journey, but his movement and use of space were sometimes restrained. However with his refined oration and perfectly tempered doses of comedy (especially in the part describing Peer's encounter with Anitra and the other Bedouin dancers), he was able to make this classic and philosophical text come to life.

After this performance Norwegian singer Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer and Pianist Helge Lien brought to stage some soundscapes inspired by the themes of PEER GYNT as well as other Ibsen plays. The soulful and haunting pieces that the duo themselves find hard to classify into any one genre, were an exciting mix of classic jazz, baroque, and had some vibes of underground grunge too. While most of the pieces are originally composed by Meyer and Lien, they also played with some pieces from the original score for PEER GYNT composed by Edvard Grieg. Meyer, who has a Master's degree in music from Bergen's Grieg Academy, complimented her masterful renditions of the musical character portraits with theatrical movement. In an interview, Lien, who holds a Master from the Norwegian Academy of music, told us that Meyer and he do not plan these and like their music, they improvise depending on the place, audience and what they feel like at that point of time.

A series of pieces were inspired by Ibsen's iconic female characters like Nora, Irene, Hedda, Solveig and others. These were interspersed with short, dramatic excerpts and choreographed sequences from/inspired by the corresponding plays performed by a host of female performers. 

                     Surnai theatre group's PEER GHANI

Day Two of the festival featured Ila Arun's Hindustani adaptation of PEER GYNT titled PEER GHANI. Set in a bucolic unnamed region of Kashmir during the 1980s, Ila Arun's adaptation is directed by KK Raina. The adaptation is a result of nearly two years of discussions between Arun and Raina, with the consultation of Urdu language expert Kamal Ahmed. Translating Ibsen has always been considered a difficult task as the Norwegian master's work is said to be inseparable from its language. Ibsen wrote in a letter in 1872 that to translate well 'was not simply a matter of translating the meaning but also, to a certain extent, of re-creating the style and the images and ultimately adapting the entire form of expression to the structure and demands of the language into which one is translating' and for those who cannot read or understand Danish, the journey from Danish to English to the target language may further pollute the 'purity' of the original.

Arun states that she was fascinated by Ibsen's description of PEER GYNT as a 'long dramatic poem' and wanted to take up the challenge of keeping this aspect of the play alive even in the Hindustani translation. Her efforts have indeed borne fruit. The dialogues of this new translation closely follow the original in its gradually decreasing sense of romance and a growing aura of dark mysticism. The lines are all in verse as in the original and without the use of complex or overwrought language, the words help capture the essence of each character. Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub is delightful as the young Peer, living with the laid-back attitude of a retired deity and making a fine art out of spinning lies to deceive his annoyed mother, Aase (Ila Arun). The relationship between Peer and Aase is an enjoyable foundation for the first half of the play. Arun playfully brings out Aase's sweet willingness to give into the poetic magic of her son's tales, even if she eventually ends up realising it's all fiction. 

Both Ayyub and Arun were able to get to the core of the musicality in the lines, and Arun's grasp on the tone of the Kashmiri dialect used was impressive. After Peer is banished from his village he runs into and is almost forced into marrying the daughter of the troll king or Kabiley Ka Sardar. He escapes and goes to live in the distant hills and is visited by the naive and ever trusting Haseena (Sharbani Mukherjee) who had rejected his advances earlier on but has had a change of heart. The interaction between Peer and Haseena causes a major change in young Peer's life and can be interpreted as the key moment where Peer establishes himself as a lost soul, giving up love and the promise of a happy life because he has no true grasp on his sense of self.

As a much older and defeated man, Peer (KK Raina) travels through the desert lands and other regions of the Maghreb and the far east as a shrewd and hedonistic tradesman. KK Raina delivers a performance that matches the grand scale of Peer's journey. He shows us the ugly, corrupt face of the old decaying Peer - a mere muddled mess of all his selfish decisions and conceit over the years. Raina's portrayal of the deluded man in the fading years of his life but still too proud to see through his own act, is full of magnetism and heartbreak. The part where Peer returns to his homeland has an intriguing interpretation in this adaptation as Peer struggles to recognise the ruins and destroyed land that is nothing like the peaceful and tranquil Kashmir that he had left. He encounters a young photographer (Ashwin Mushran) who clues him into all that has transpired since he left.

Vijay Kashyap as the button molder or the Khudai Khudmatgar, a dervish like figure who has been sent by the lord to capture Peer's rooh (soul) to mould it into a button - is a brilliantly sparkly exchange of metaphorical ideas that is quite enjoyable in Urdu.

This is no doubt a very well thought out and intelligent production but at a running time of over three hours it suffers and is wounded by the inclusion of long-winded choreographed bits, melodramatic sound effects and stretched scenes of lesser significance that do not match up to the rest of the show.There is a lot that is worth admiring in this adaptation that any gimmicks seem all the more clunky and out of place. One hopes to see a lighter version of the show soon which revels in and boldly relies on its poetry and powerful performances to see it through. The set design is also good. 

                   Ideas Unlimited's THE MASTER BUILDER

The last play at the festival was the Gujarati production of Ibsen's 1892 three-act play THE MASTER BUILDER by Manoj Shah's theatre group Ideas Unlimited. In this version directed by Manoj Shah and adapted by Chirantana Bhatt, Akhil Nanavati (Jay Upadhyaya) is a successful middle-aged architect in Mumbai, who has earned a name for himself by building beautiful temple structures. As is the case with Ibsen's Halvard Solness, Akhil Nanavati protects his position at the top and likes to control. Constantly fearing his dethronement and resenting the younger new generation of architects, he has hired his main rival Bhanushankar (Manoj Shah) and his son Aadarsh (Pratik Kothari) and Aadarsh's fiance Tanvi (Darshana Kanetkar) as his secretary (and secretly his mistress) to keep Aadarsh from succeeding independently. At home, Akhil has distanced himself from his wife Saumya (Archana Patel Nandi), and she from him, having never been able to move on from the death of their children in a house fire years ago. Now, Akhil has given up building temples and, ironically, builds housing societies instead.

Jay Upadhyaya as Akhil paints a decent portrait of the pride and self-centeredness of the insecure architect. His portrayal of the more weaker and vulnerable side of this accomplished man came across a bit too controlled. In his holding back, we miss the despicable ruthless side of the man that earns him the hatred of many. As the wife who has resigned to living amongst the ruin of what was once a happy marriage, Archana Patel Nandi as Saumya holds her own and delivers a nuanced performance.

THE MASTER BUILDER
MASTER BUILDER

This is the volatile setting of the play into which, one fine day as Akhil chats with his good friend and the good doctor, in walks Kamya (Dimple Ashar), a confident woman who claims that in a fleeting meeting between them many years ago, Akhil had off-handedly promised her he would build her a castle of her own one day. They begin to come closer and Kamya begins to inspire Akhil to reconnect with the drive and idealism of his youth, but eventually leads him to his downfall. Dimple Ashar channels a great energy and zeal as the lively Kamya. This loud, chatty twenty-something isn't exactly the kind of young woman you'd expect a sophisticated, middle-aged man to take to, as opposed to the quietly enigmatic Hilde in Ibsen's version, but she has some revealing moments that justify his reliance on her. The scenes of passion between her and Nanavati, however, have been childishly watered down (perhaps keeping in mind a family audience) and made parts of the play awkward and insincere.

The theme of a proud self-made man who defines himself by the value placed by society upon him provides solid ground for a Gujarati adaptation - infused as the culture is with business and success that is rooted in money and fame. It was interesting to see how convincingly characters from 19th Century Norway are translated into present-day India. The plot of the original is a bit confusing - we never quite know for sure whether it is the mysterious young woman who instigates the Master Builder's obsession to recreate his old glory, or if it is something deeper within his own self that leads him to his fateful end. This adaptation retains these ambiguities faithfully and also plays well with the sense of the everyday-ness of the events that Ibsen was so fond of. But unlike the original with its steady and gradual unravelling of the inner traumas, ten minutes into this production and we feel that all the cards are already laid out on the table and we need to endure the playing of the game nonetheless. 

                                         The Seminar

On the last day the festival there was a seminar titled 'The Task and Temptation of Adapting, Translating and Performing Ibsen'. The speakers Ila Arun, Kare Conradi, KK Raina, Manoj Shah, the musicians Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer and Helge Lien, translator/journalist Astri Ghosh, Norwegian Ibsen studies expert Prof. Ellen Rees and others came together to discuss their personal journeys that led them to Ibsen.

The central discussion revolved around the many translations of Ibsen and how to navigate through them; the challenges of translating Ibsen and how to adapt despite all the challenges. Ila Arun lamented the tendency of previous Ibsen adaptations in India to shy away from the heavy, philosophical text and chose to represent the themes in experimental ways instead. She emphasised the importance and pleasure of engaging with Ibsen's words to recreate them in a context closer to home. Kare Conradi shared that he likes to read as many good translations of a text as he can find so that one can filter out the best. He did admit that he has a favorite version of PEER GYNT prescribed to him by his mentor the Norwegian artist Elisabeth Gording (a version that both Ruth Meyer and Astri Ghosh also happen to be fond of). Prof. Rees of the Ibsen Studies centre at the University of Oslo, mirrored Ibsen's view on translation saying that it is also a form of adaptation in that it creates a completely new version that has its own merit independent from the original work.

Certain themes of Ibsen's works such as the critique of individualism and material happiness in PEER GYNT and THE MASTER BUILDER, blind nationalism, the empowerment of women in domestic settings, the celebration of sensitivity and poetry in a hard-headed, rational world; were discussed and credited for Ibsen's popularity in the Indian context.

The seminar ended on a high note with another short but invigorating performance by Meyer and Lien of some of their own and some of Grieg's pieces.

*Saudamini Kalra is a student of theatre and occasionally a poet.


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