 |
|
The Delhi Ibsen Festival 2010
is unique in every way, because it encompasses an aspect of Ibsen's
work and theme, rarely discussed; Ritual, Tradition & Folklore. In the
Indian context, this is specially important, because it helps us to
define our own point of contact with Ibsen. We have to see him, not as
a stranger in our midst, but and bring him into our own environment
and into our minds, in a manner that he becomes familiar and
endearing. Only then can we make the most of the contribution his work
has the potential of making, to Indian theatre. Scholars like the
Director of the Ibsen Museum, Dr. Erik Edvardsen, Dr. Astrid Saether,
Dr. Nina Alnaes among others, have written about the folkloristic
influence in Ibsen's work, and this has remained more or less in the
realm of academic research and studies. It was, however Dr. Edvardsen
who first introduced me to the production of The Mountain Bird by Lars
Oyno, that inspired me to think more concretely about focusing
practically on this aspect of Ibsen work in the Delhi Ibsen Festival,
because this production was like an intense ritual. I saw the
relevance of such an approach to Ibsen almost immediately, and began
looking into such possibilities in the Indian context, with its rich
cultural heritage, replete with folklore, ritual and a traditionally
based performance language.
I had always been greatly impressed by Ila Arun's earthy and raw style
of singing, and even in her personality, there was a resounding sense
of the folk, coupled with a theatricality that is not often seen in
singer-performers. It was going to be very interesting to make a
popular star performer of Bollywood, cross over into the realm of
Ibsen's scholarly world, but through the power and richness of
tradition, I felt it was possible to accomplish almost anything. The
Bapuji ka Phad, was, I felt, an ideal genre of performance, which
could take Ibsen, to the heart of this very rich traditional
performance idiom of Rajasthan. The idea instantly appealed to Ila,
who responded very instinctively when we spoke about such a
possibility.
Similar responses to Ibsen in a very 'local' context came from B.
Jayashree, whose grandfather, Gubbi Veeranna, had founded the Gubbi
theatre company, performing in a style of the Company Natak Mandalis,
and from a young director, Deepan Sivaraman, whose production of
Spinal Cord last year, was like a dirge; ritualistic and rooted in the
soil. These responses were in a sense, shaping the festival of 2010.I
felt I was moving closer into Ibsen's thinking, and was even more
convinced when I heard scholars, talk about the importance of
Norwegian folklore in Ibsen's plays, and the imagery resulting
there-from. Lee Breuer's Mabou Mines Dollhouse, was yet another, 'out
of the ordinary' way of depicting Ibsen's play, “ A Doll's House”,
because, by using small people as the male characters of the play, and
Nora as an averagely tall woman, it transformed the conventional idiom
of performance and social norms that governed gender equations; and
Saulius Varnas' “When We Dead Awaken”, was a metaphorical statement
that expanded the dimension Ibsen's play.
The relevance of Ibsen's contact with Indian theatre in this context
assumes a new dimension, connected more integrally with the style of
'staging', in traditional forms of Indian theatre. Conventionally,
this style of staging, is also closely related to the content of
traditional theatre, and therefore its would not be surprising that
the characters of Ibsen would perhaps blend or merge, with the
characters like the 'nat' or the 'nati', traditionally playing the
role of narrator/commentators. Further possibilities of transforming
Ibsen's stories and linking them with Indian myths, and even changing
principal characters from Ibsen, into Indian characters, not just
characters with Indian names, is also another level of this composite
form of a hybrid characteristic, that is so much part of
inter-cultural interaction. Thus bringing Ibsen into the realm of
Indian tradition, is in itself a step that leads to multiple
transformations, and produces an interaction between Norwegian and
Indian ways of thinking. This undoubtedly has immense possibilities,
as there are numerous traditional forms of Indian theatre, and the
nature of this transformation would undoubtedly be different in forms
from different regions of India.
The 2010 Delhi Ibsen festival thus becomes a third level of
interaction of Indian directors with Ibsen. In 2008, we had
commissioned the second generation of Indian directors who, while
having known Ibsen as one of the most important Western dramatists,
had never themselves, directed Ibsen. They had however, over a period
of almost 20 years, evolved a style of their own, in the later phase
of a post-colonial environment, and thus when they did take up the
challenge of producing Ibsen, it was entirely different from their
predecessors, on whom the influence of Colonialism had been much
greater. In 2009, we selected the younger generation of directors, who
were even more distanced from their Colonial legacy, and who were now
considered to be the generation, which was 'After Post-Colonialism'.
The impact of their Ibsen was extremely radical, and new directions in
their work were strongly discernible.
The future exploration with Ibsen in the Indian theatre-scape provides
many new areas of engagement, which do not require to be theoretical
contentions, because in practice, the Ibsen provides substantial
material, in many different areas,; viz. new ideas, creative dramatic
practice, interdisciplinary research, etc. Indeed, Ibsen ji, as Ila
Arun likes to call him, is fast becoming a dear companion, championing
new causes.
|
|
|
