KK Raina and Ila Arun set to bring Norways next Ibsen to life

It was 2012 when KK Raina and Ila Arun first got acquainted with the perplexing minimalism of Norwegian writer Jon Fosse The veteran actors were invitees to the International Ibsen Festival in Oslo where they found themselves musing if there was a modern practitioner who was as relevant and thoughtprovoking as Henrik Ibsen the formidable Norwegian playwright whose work has been adapted by Arun for Indian stages Inger Buresund the festivalrsquos managing director suggested that they read the works of Jon Fosse and Raina swiftly headed to the nearest bookstore and returned with a bunch of Fossersquos works The rest as they say is history and arduous stage rehearsalsSurnai Theatre Group rehearses Death Variations by ldquoNorwayrsquos next Ibsenrdquo FosseldquoI finished reading all six volumes that very night I was addicted to Ibsen and I am obsessed with Fosserdquo admits the awardwinning scriptwriter who has directed Pir Ghani adapted from Ibsenrsquos Peer Gynt Under Rainarsquos direction the Surnai Theatre Group will stage Fossersquos Death Variations 2001 this week for the first time in India Translated from Norwegian by May Brit Akerholt this play has everything that ldquoNorwayrsquos next Ibsenrdquo is both loved and feared for by theatre directors It is existential it is lyrical it is bare of stage directions the characters are nameless If you thought Waiting for Godot is a play where nothing happens then you havenrsquot met FosseFor Raina Death Variations is a timeless tale of a couple that tries to understand ldquowhat went wrongrdquo The play presents Older Woman and Older Man as they collect bits of reason to come to terms with their Daughterrsquos death and look back on her life and their marriage The play features a tight cast mdash Vijay Kashyap Joy Sengupta Aadya Bedi Ashish Chawla and Maanvi Gagroo Arun who has earlier adapted Ibsenrsquos Lady from the Sea into the Hindustani play Mareechika plays the role of grieving Older Woman and says there is nothing abstract about Fosse touted as Samuel Beckettrsquos lyrical counterpart ldquoThe couple has lost something And Fossersquos understanding of death is not just physical death It could be the death of a relationship the death of communication the death of an artistrsquos expression the death of emotions There are different kinds of deathrdquoDrawn by the lyrical language that Fosse uses Arun also contributes to the play as music director and has brought in Zeeshan Khan a singer from the celebrated Rampur Gharana ldquoHe is continuously singing our thoughts and highlighting our feelingsrdquo says Arun Indianising the play Khan enchantingly sings Miyan ki Malhaar when a character mentions rainof which there are several instances through the playBut thatrsquos the easy bit In 2010 Fosse received the International Ibsen Award and the committeersquos statement highlighted the undramatic quality of his works ldquoHard to playrdquo was their flattering comment ldquoThis play has pauses short pauses andlong pauses And those are the only stage directions For an actor this is a challenge What do you do with a lsquopausersquo And how is it different from a lsquoshort pausersquordquo quizzes Raina But he also feels that Fosse is a liberating playwright challenging actors to interpret characters that are simply called lsquoDaughterrsquo or lsquoFriendrsquoWhile this is a Fosse first in India Raina staged the 90minute long play last year at the Ibsen in China festival for a section called Jon Fossersquos Blossoms There were other tributes to Fosse such as A Summerrsquos Day by the Galiaskar Kamal Tatar State Academic Theatre Kazan Russia and Dream of Autumn by the Tehran Theatre WorkshopThe pressure was high back then to get Fosse right and the same is the case now Having rehearsed fora monthandhalf between packed schedules Raina feels it has taught him and the actors to put the unspeakable into words ldquoEvery moment of our rehearsals was tough If it is new for us actors itrsquos surely new for audiences We are eager to see how Indian audiences react to Fosserdquo