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A Doll’s House, the story of Nora who borrowed money by forging her father’s signature, is perhaps the most popular Ibsen play to be staged in Bangladesh. It is not surprising that it was also perhaps the first Ibsen play to be staged in Bangladesh when Kanthasheelan presented Putulkhela, Shambhu Mitra’s famous adaptation. The first performance of Putulkhela by Kanthasheelan was on January 23, 1993. Directed by Khaled Khan, the production had a total of 24 shows.
   In November 1999, Israfil Shaheen of the Department of Music and Theatre University of Dhaka directed a production of Nora— Khairul Alam Sabuj’s adaptation of A Doll’s House—at Natmandal.
   In 2001, CAT staged Putuler Itikatha, translated and directed by Kamaluddin Nilu. Putuler Jtikatha was an experimental production, in which songs were used and attempts made to incorporate theatre techniques of both East and West.
   A Doll’s House was also performed outside Dhaka, when Theatre Workshop Chattagram staged Khelaghar in Chittagong. Kuntal Barua, a part-time teacher at the Department of Fine Arts, University of Chittagong, adapted and directed the play.
   When Naripokkho celebrated its thirtieth anniversary it staged scenes from A Doll’s House, focusing on the feminist message of the play.
   In 2000, CAT staged Peer Chan, Syed Shamsul Haq’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. The play was directed by Kamaluddin Nilu, with set and light design by Kurt Hermansen, Norway and choreography by Ruth Lerche and Munmun Ahmed. Peer Chan also used techniques blending East and West.
   In 1999 CAT staged Bunohans, adapted by Khairul Alam Shabuj from The Wild Duck, and directed by M.K. Raina, a renowned theatre and film director of India. The production was supported by “Professional Theatre, Publications and Exchange Programme” and assisted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Dhaka. The play was staged in different towns of Bangladesh including the metropolitan cities of Dhaka and Chittagong. Bunohans, like A Doll’s House, projects Ibsen’s attitude towards gender disparities and the unconditional love that women have for men, to the extent of sacrificing themselves.
   Krishnabibar, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts by Ahmed
   Reza, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, was staged by CAT in 1996. Directed by Kamaluddin Nilu, with set and light design by Kurt Hermansen of Norway, this was the first production of CAT Repertory. Ibsen’s powerful play about sexual immorality, venereal disease and incest, was staged in Dhaka as well as in various district towns of Bangladesh.
   Brand, the Bangla version of Henrik Ibsen’s play by Manzur-i-Mowla, was staged by CAT on December 19, 2004. The play, which may be read as a theological debate between the Old and New Testament concepts of divinity as well as the story of an individual fighting an existential battle to define his own religious identity, was ably directed by Kamaluddin Nilu. The role of the protagonist was powerfully acted by Monir Ahmed Shakil, who was supported by an excellent cast of actors who fused speech and body language into a well-choreographed whole.
   Brand is a priest, who shows great courage in crossing stormy waters to hear the last confession of a dying sinner, a man who has in anger murdered his own child. Brand’s courage wins him the admiring love of a young woman, Agnes. Agnes marries Brand and they have a child. Unwilling to compromise, Brand is sorely tested but refuses to give in, even if this means sacrificing his son and wife. The play ends tragically in Brand’s death in an avalanche.
   Janatar Shatru, the Bangla adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People by SM Solaiman, was staged by Dhaka Padatik in May 1990. Directed by Salekh Khan, this play narrates the story of a doctor in a small town who discovers that the water of the health centre that he himself had founded is polluted. The spa is of great importance to the town, but the doctor is convinced that it must be closed. He calls a public meeting to present his case. The people present at the meeting brand him as an enemy of the people. Initially disappointed, he plans to leave town but in the end changes his mind.
   Mahasthapati, the Bangla adaptation of Ibsen’s The Master Builder by Abdul Haque was staged by Kanthasheelan in August 2004. Directed by Khaled Khan, The Master Builder is one of Ibsen’s most complex plays.
   Another Ibsen play staged in Bangladesh was Samay’s Sadaghoda, the Bangla version of Rosmersholm. Adapted and directed by Gazi Rakayet, it was staged in 2000.
   Compiled by Anisur Rahman

Henrik Ibsen
1828-1906
by Ketil Jensehaugen

In 50 years (1 850-1899) Henrik Ibsen published 26 dramas and 1 collection of poetry. Some of his poems were long and epic, like Terje Vigen, about a man imprisoned by the English, as he is rowing to Denmark to buy food in times of hunger. When he returns after some years, his family has starved to death. People of Norway often learned this poem by heart and declaimed it in the period before they won their independence in 1905.
   Ibsen's first works, often centered on Norway's past to awaken his countrymen's pride and desire for freedom and self-determination, had limited success. It was first when he settled abroad, modernizing his dramas that he became globally known. His words started to have an impact on people's minds, making them rethink old conventions and enabled them to see limitations in society and seek the freedom to change.
   He made the theater as art-form more accessible as his contemporary dramas often were minimal, requiring only a small stage with some furniture imitating a living-room. Furthermore, Ibsen used an every-day language, easy to understand and translate. The few characters and the conflicts were often universal; adaptable to other cultures. All this made it possible to play his dramas for a wider audience, to take the theater to the people so to speak. To-day his plays are staged in Barisal as well as in Berlin.
   One of the first references to Ibsen in Bengali literature is a short-story by Rabindranath Tagore. In Payla Number (1918), Anila leaves her husband Advaita Babu because he is passionate about European literature (Ibsen in particular) and not her. As we see, a satirical parallel to Nora in A Doll's House, a play that was staged 1945-46 in Kolkata, signaling Ibsen's debut in India. It is also interesting to note that Kazi Nazrul Islam in an essay from 1932, Bortomaan Biswoshahityo, praises Ibsen for his realism.
   In East-Bengal and later Bangladesh, Ibsen's dramas have, since the 1960's, been extensively translated into Bangla. They have been broadcasted on several occasions by Bangladesh Radio and televised by BTV.
   When it comes to the theater, his plays have just recently been staged in the country for the first time. Possibly was Putulkhela; - an adaptation of A Doll's House, a first in 1993. Since then a string of productions of Ibsen's dramas has followed and it must be added that these productions have been of a very high quality and well adapted to the culture of Bangladesh with its rich theatrical traditions.
   Large audiences have attended plays like, Sadaghoda (Rosmerhoim), Krishnabi bar (Ghosts), Bunohans (The Wild Duck) Peer Chan (Peer Gym') and, recently, Brand, in Dhaka and Chittagong as well as in Chandpur, Kulna and Barishal.
   In the last few years, several conferences, seminars and workshops have been arranged in Bangladesh on Ibsen's plays and characters, with national and international participation. There has also been published, a lot of essays, both in Bangla and English on these matters, so all in all it is fair to say that Henrik Ibsen is making an impact in contemporary Bangladesh as he is in the rest of the world.