Peer pressure

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsenrsquos A Dollrsquos House is probably his most popular done all over the world in different languages every culture can identify with a womanrsquos suffocation in a bad marriage and her leaving her marital home with a door slam the echo of which was heard around the worldHis Ghosts An Enemy of the People Master Builder Hedda Gabbler Wild Duck Lady From The Sea have also had productions in India but not many have attempted Peer GyntIt is a fiveact play in verse steeped in the fairy tales and folklore of Norway and hence widely performed in the playwrightrsquos own country It is also Ibsenrsquos most stylised play blending realism and fantasy It is not easy for a director designer and actors to get the right tone But it also allows for the imagination to run wild through Ibsenrsquos surreal visionIla Arun presented the Ibsen theater festival in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Mumbai on Oct 31 where she took on the brave task of adapting Peer Gynt Ila also goes out of her comfort zone of Rajasthani folk music and sets her Peer Ghani in Kashmir to mirror the snow covered landscape of NorwayAlthough the lazy dreamer Peer Gynt of the play belongs to the hills and valleys of Norway characters like him are found in every rural society the young man coddled by his widowed mother who narrates to her magical stories of his fake valourIla Arun who had earlier adapted Lady from the Sea as Marichika takes on the brave task of adapting Peer Gynt trying as far as possible to use verse but not always succeeding Ila also goes out of her comfort zone of Rajasthani folk music and sets her Peer Ghani in Kashmir to mirror the snow covered landscape of Norway Her director and collaborator K K Raina together they run a group called Surnai is from Kashmir and brings to the play a reflection of the ensuing tragedy of his home state a paradise wrecked by militancy and its aftermathThe version presented at the recently concluded Ibsen festival in Mumbai is a much truncated also a bit stodgy in its staging still there are moments that are moving simply because many viewers must be imposing on the proceedings of their own impressions of the Kashmir issue that appeals to everyone in India at an emotional and visceral level The images that flash through the mind as an old Peer Ghani returns to a ravaged state are residual images from print TV documentary cinema and every medium that has captured the torment of the people The beauty of the landscape projected on stage only heightens the mood of bleakness because the serenity of hills forests and simple dwellings is so deceptiveLike the young man of Ibsenrsquos play Peer Ghani Syed Zeeshan Qadri frolics around his mother Ase Ila Arun who part affectionatepart exasperated calls him ldquoHaraamzaade Fakirzaaderdquo as she sees through his tall talesWhen he hears of a girl he likes being married to another man he dumps his mother on the roof of the house and goes off to break up the wedding There his boasting has little impact on the men but a girl called Haseena Shravani Mukherjee falls for him Peer captures the bride and carries her off to the mountains where he abandons herThen telling Haseena to wait for him by a mountain cabin he goes off on a fantastical adventure where he runs into a group of demons with horns and tails this section is rather shoddy Here too he leaves a lovelorn woman behindLater an older Peer K K Raina is seen partying with a group of Arabs boasting of how he made his fortune through dealing in drugs and weapons He tells them of his brief return to his village where his mother breathes her lastAn attack on the group by militants drives Peer back to Kashmir where he sees the destruction he has wrought by the crimes he committed Ila Arun makes changes in the text to make it contemporary and in the process loses the magical progression of Peerrsquos adventures His travels across the world his dalliance with a dancing girl his stay in an insane asylum and so many episodes are set aside to hasten his journey homeHis encounter with a photographer Ashwin Mushran who lost his livelihood when the tourists stopped coming to Kashmir has little to do with Ibsenrsquos wildly meandering plotFinally Ila Arunrsquos story joins up with Ibsenrsquos as Peer meets the Button Man Vijay Kashyap who wants to mould him into a button in his ladle he is the harbinger of death but Peer is not ready to die yet The Button Man asks him to find someone who will vouch for him and he canrsquot find a single soul Eventually he reaches the hut where Haseena has been waiting patiently for him to return However selfish and vile a man may be he can find a woman to love himPeer Ghani with a bunch of good actors and functional stage design falls somewhere between the magical and the prosaic Maybe it needed some more of Ibsenrsquos spirit and not just slivers of his words Still the Kashmiri folk music the authentic costumes and poetic language transport the viewer to another world which is saying a lot these days when so much theatre in Mumbai offers no takeaway at allDeepa Gahlot is an awardwinning film and theatre critic and an arts administrator You can follow her on twitter deepagahlot