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Ruminating Ibsen's PEER GYNT: 'The Peer Gynt Cycle' at the Hyderabad University (12-16th February 2015)




Deepa Punjani


Professor Erika Fischer-Lichte delivering the keynote
Professor B Ananthakrishnan making the welcome speech
In February I had the occasion to observe a conference and a festival dedicated to Henrik Ibsen's play PEER GYNT that was organised by the Department of Theatre Arts (which is part of the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication) at Hyderabad University in collaboration with the Centre for Ibsen Studies at the University of Oslo. Professor B Ananthakrishnan was the chief coordinator representing his department of Theatre Arts at Hyderabad University.

I was curious when I first heard about the event.

Ibsen's PEER GYNT, unlike his popular three-act plays, is a five-act play written in verse and is sometimes regarded as a long dramatic poem with characters and elements from Nordic folklore. It begins with a young Peer leaving his home - underlying ideas of youth, idealism, heroism and even naivete. But it is a story that goes beyond the 'coming of age' tales. Peer ventures further and deeper in his journey and onwards towards experiences magical and lands alien and foreign. Peer's journey has worldliness, magic, adventure, mysticism and philosophy- all rolled in together. When he returns home, he is an old and bitter man, bereft of his possessions and is confronted with the crisis of his soul that must be 'melted'.

Academicians have had different theses and interpretations of the play and some of these were laid out, discussed and debated during the conference with the central theme being 'Ibsen between tradition and contemporaenity.' Various scholars and theatre practitioners were invited to participate. It's a long list.

From Norway, Professor Frode Helland and Professor Ellen Rees represented the Oslo University's Centre for Ibsen Studies. Ellen Rees' paper presented her reading of the text along with philosophical positions that argue that PEER GYNT has a far-reaching impact than previously studied.

There was a small contingent of scholars from Bangladesh, which included Professor Sabiha Huq from the Khulna University in Bangladesh. Her paper took on the pivotal concerns of reading and interpreting PEER GYNT in South Asia. Professor and activist S. Jeyashankar from Batticloa in Sri Lanka was more interested if the text had any resonance in Sri Lanka, especially in his area of work with locals in areas affected by the Tamil ethnic crisis and war in Sri Lanka.

Some of the participating scholars and theatre practitioners from India brought distinct perspectives and their experiences of the play, among them, Shomo Choudhury from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Sudipto Chatterjee from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, MV Narayanan from the University of Calicut, C Gopan from the Sankaracharya University, Kerala, Deepan Sivaraman from Ambedkar University, Delhi, Sumathi Nagesh from the University of Hyderabad.

Professor Erika Fischer-Lichte delivering the keynote
Professor Erika Fischer-Lichte delivering the keynote
Professor Erika Fischer-Lichte from the International Research Centre 'Interweaving Performance Cultures' in Berlin delivered the keynote. In a time of 'multiple modernities', she asked if there was any sense to talk about intercultural performance with reference to the PEER GYNT productions in India. We might arrive at a better dialogue if we looked at the 'interconnectedness' of our experiences.

According to Ellen Rees, also one of the two coordinators of the conference cum festival, many Norwegians regard the play as a national epic. In our website's interview with Ellen Rees, she talks of why this particular play was chosen to dwell on. Rees' interview provides insights into PEER GYNT's text and why and how the conference and festival at Hyderabad University was planned.

The event was supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, which has been a keen promoter of Ibsen in India. Over the past few years, the Embassy has been supporting Ibsen festivals in the country. Ibsen after all is Norway's greatest cultural export besides being a literary icon who has been canonised in English Literature departments across the world.






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