New and interesting adaptations of the Norwegian playwright’s works will be staged in the Capital
Of all Henrik Ibsen’s works, A Doll’s House is probably the most well-known and most-discussed. A film of Lee Breuer’s adaptation of Ibsen’s play, titled Mabou Mines Dollhouse, will be the highlight of the third edition of the Ibsen Festival, starting later this week.
“The logistics of bringing the cast and set to Delhi was enormous so we have decided to screen the film instead,” says Nissar Allana, director of the Ibsen Festival. Breuer will, however, be present in Delhi and talk to audiences about the play. The director of 11 Obie Award winning productions will also host a two-day acting workshop at the festival.
Some of the other popular Ibsen plays to be staged are A Lady from the Sea (adapted as Mareechika directed by Ila Arun), Peer Gynt (loosely adapted Indian version by Deepan Sivaraman), When We Dead Awaken (by Lithuanian director Saulius Antanas Varnas) and The Master Builder (Balura Gudikara, a Kannada adaptation directed by B Jayashree).
Also to be staged is Fjeldfuglen, the world premiere of Norwegian director Lars Oyno’s version of Ibsen’s unfinished opera libretto from 1859 called The Mountain Bird.
Interesting among these is Ila Arun’s Maricheeka in which the story is told in the folk narrative form through the balladeers, Bhopa and Bhopi, traditional storytellers from Rajasthan. Jayashree’s Balura Gudikara too will have elements of the Veera Ghase folk format.
The central theme of the festival being “Rituals & Ibsen” this year, the idea says Allana is to blend India’s cultural heritage, folklore and ritual in order to depict and expand the dimensions of Ibsen’s plays.
The Ibsen Festival, November 30-December 10. For more information, visit www.delhibsenfestival.com
