In February 2015, the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Hyderabad collaborated with the Centre for Ibsen Studies at the University of Oslo for a conference and festival dedicated to Henrik Ibsen's play PEER GYNT. Professor Ellen Rees at the Centre for Ibsen Studies, University of Oslo, coordinated the event with Professor B Ananthakrishnan of the Department of Theatre Arts at Hyderabad University. Professor Rees tells us why this rarely staged Ibsen play outside Norway was selected and talks about the play's relevance among other things that were planned for the event.
By Deepa Punjani
Deepa Punjani (DP): Your Centre for Ibsen Studies at the University of Oslo collaborated with the Department of Theatre Arts at Hyderabad University for a conference and a festival focused on Ibsen's play PEER GYNT. Why this particular play?
Ellen Rees (ER): We chose to begin our collaboration with the University of Hyderabad with PEER GYNT for a number of reasons. Some of our collaborators felt that there are particularly interesting unexplored resonances between Indian philosophy and some of the views expressed in this play. It is the Ibsen play that is most important for Norwegian audiences, though not as widely known abroad. Basically, we just wanted to see what would happen in a meeting between Indian theater traditions and PEER GYNT.
DP: During the course of the conference, we found that while Ibsen has been canonised in Literature departments in the Universities in India, he has not been widely produced, with the exception of his more familiar work to Indian audiences like A DOLL'S HOUSE or AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. PEER GYNT, apart from a few exceptions, has hardly been staged. Is this situation similar in other countries with which your Centre has been associated?
ER: Yes, it seems that PEER GYNT doesn't get staged as often as the realist dramas in countries outside Norway. Within Norway, however, it is by far the most popular work. Indeed, it is viewed by many as the de facto Norwegian national epic.
DP: Why is PEER GYNT considered a ''national epic'' in Norway?
ER: In PEER GYNT, Ibsen used satire to criticise nationalism, but he also chose to adapt the book for the stage as a nationalistic spectacle nine years after it was published. As a stage performance it became extraordinarily popular, and quickly gained status as Norway's national epic. While the fact that an overtly anti-national work became a national epic may seem paradoxical, it fits rather well with prevalent attitudes in Norway. Norwegians tend to be highly skeptical of authority and have a healthy dose of ''self irony'' that keeps them from taking themselves and their political institutions too seriously.
DP: Your centre and the Royal Norwegian Embassy supported four exclusive productions of PEER GYNT by Indian groups that were staged as part of the event. All the productions can be more properly regarded as work-in-progress. Are there any plans to ensure that they will honed and performed?
ER: The Centre for Ibsen Studies has no plans to follow up on these performances, but we certainly hope they will develop into finalised productions. If they do, they may be invited to perform in Norway.
DP: As an audience-member watching Ibsen's PEER GYNT, what would you hope that a theatre company could explore?
ER: I am always eager to see productions that explore the more existential aspects of the text, rather than just focussing on the relationships between the character types. I am also always eager to see productions that recognise the humour and playfulness of Ibsen's text. It's really quite funny and strange!
DP: There was a deliberate emphasis on using South-Indian folk and classical forms in the PEER GYNT performances commissioned for the festival. I believe that was a prerequisite. Any particular reason for doing so? Could that not have a negative outcome in terms of a limitation imposed and the group feeling constrained to do otherwise?
ER: As a play text, PEER GYNT is deeply rooted in Norwegian folk traditions, so it made sense to try to make use of the incredibly rich and varied folk traditions in South India as a way of creating a cultural ''translation'' or ''transcreation'' that resonated both with the Norwegian origins and the various Indian cultural contexts. We don't anticipate using this approach toward other Ibsen plays in the future, but it felt appropriate for PEER GYNT.
DP: What was the best part of this event in your opinion? Do you think it delivered what you and Professor B Ananthakrishnan had in mind?
ER: For me, the best part of the event was the frank and open exchanges and conversations that took place across various lines between Europe and India, both cultural and disciplinary, between theater practitioners and scholars. I felt like for once all these groups were placed in an open arena of exchange and were encouraged to learn from each other and understand each other's perspectives. Ibsen's PEER GYNT was in a sense just a vehicle for getting very different groups of people to engage with one another.
DP: Any particular papers that left an impression? Why?
ER: I think the papers that made the biggest impression on me were the presentations by theater practitioners. I loved hearing the ideas behind the choices that directors made in preparing their performances. Sudipto Chatterjee's talk was a good example of this, and he even sang for us, which made a very positive impression on me.
DP: Your own paper suggested that PEER GYNT is more philosophically radical than acknowledged by previous scholars. Can you talk about some of these positions in terms of your reading of the play?
ER: I think if you compare PEER GYNT to any other texts written around the middle of the 19th century in Europe and really examine the ideas expressed in them, it is impossible not to conclude that Ibsen was really challenging almost all the central tenants of European philosophical idealism. Where else in the European literary tradition do you find such a thorough deconstruction of the notion of a stable self? Where else do you find such an ambivalent, almost parodic attitude towards Christianity?
DP: We had a group of Bangladeshi delegates but none from Pakistan...
ER: We had originally planned to invite at least one theater director and one scholar from each of the countries that made up the South Asian region, including Pakistan, but we encountered a number of logistical and political hurdles along the way that made this impossible. It was certainly never our intention to exclude Pakistani scholars and directors, and we hope that it will be possible to have even wider regional representation at our next event.
DP: Are there plans with the Hyderabad University to take this forward?
ER: Yes! We're going to do this again in 2017, this time with Ibsen's GHOSTS. This is a play that is about the secrets of the past wreaking havoc on the present, and I think this is a universal. Every culture has its dark side and its secrets that it would rather hide away than deal with, yet these secrets almost always come back to haunt us. It should be really interesting to see what contemporary Indian theater directors do with this very dark and pessimistic play, and if/how they relate it to contemporary issues in South Asia.
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