The seminar “Staging Ibsen Today” was conducted at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing 31 October – 4 November 2011. Theatre makers from China, Russia, Brazil, India, and Norway shared their experiences and thoughts on staging Ibsen in their respective countries with an eager and inspired audience of students and professors. The seminar also resulted in a strong bond between the invited speakers and the Chinese hosts through the signing of the BRINCS agreement.

Opening statement by Wang Xiaoying
Supervisor at the Chinese Dramatist Association,Theatre Directing Committee

Welcome to Beijing, our friends from Norway, Russia, Brazil, India and other countries! We, the Directing Art Committee of the Chinese Dramatists Association, would like to extend our warm greetings to you, we are pleased to have you here together with the Chinese dramatists and scholars for the international seminar on “Contemporary Presentation and Interpretation on Ibsen” in honor of the great playwright, Ibsen.
Without doubt, Shakespeare is the most well-known foreign playwright in China, while Ibsen gives us the most profound influence on the development of Chinese dramas. Ibsen has been playing a significant role in many aspects, such as Chinese dramaturgy and performing art, emergency of China’s greatest dramatists, Chinese practitioners’ understanding and appreciation on dramatic functions and the development of theatrical ideas and even the definition of “drama” in Chinese. Some of his influence lasts to this day.

For a long time, the interpretation and presentation of Ibsen’s works was confined to realism and social problems by the Chinese dramatists to a great extent. Ever since the early 1980s, starting with the staging of Ibsen’s dramas like Peer Gynt, The Master Builder, and A Doll’s House, Pillars of Society, and Ghosts in many different versions, the Chinese dramatists have developed a deeper understanding of the practical knowledge about Ibsen’s poetic, rhapsodic, and metaphorical expression in his dramas. With more and more modern interpretation and international cooperation in recent years, it has been highly raised that Ibsen’s dramas have great vitality and diverse ways
of interpretation on the stage. All of these performances engage us in self-examination about whether the Chinese dramatists’ understanding of Ibsen’s “social dramas” is superficial? Ibsen’s dramas remain an enduring popularity in every corner of the globe for over 100 years, is it because the social criticism or the spirit inspired by the characters’ pursuit of personality freedom? Such questions may also enlighten us in the aspect of dramatic creation. Perhaps it is fair to say that a deeper and more thorough understanding of Ibsen’s dramas is in a way a deeper and more thorough understanding of dramatic art itself. To conclude, may the international seminar on “Contemporary Presentation and Interpretation on Ibsen” a great and complete success!

Opening Statement by Inger Buresund
Artistic and Managing Director Ibsen International

I have had the great pleasure to see Ibsen’s plays in many different cultures and contexts. Most of the times the play appears like it belongs in the country’s culture and certainly is recognizable as Ibsen’s text. Ibsen can probably be adapted to any culture. His themes are becoming more and more important and are modern issues. I often get the question: As Norwegian, please explain to us the real way of staging Ibsen? The answer to that is: If there was one way of staging Ibsen, the Norwegian way, Ibsen wouldn’t be world famous. There isn’t even one Norwegian way of staging him.
Ibsen International is proud and honored to partner with The Central Academy of Drama in China and China Theatre Association Directing Arts Committee for the seminar. We have invited keynote speakers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and Norway to present their experience of staging Ibsen today. This seminar is a rare opportunity to gain insight from directors’, from very different countries and cultures, work with Ibsen to day. This is what the seminar Staging Ibsen Today will focus on. I look forward to exciting presentations, intense dialogue and not least the beginning of cooperation with directors from some of the most important countries today.

Speakers:

Wu Xiaojiang (China)
Director of National Theatre of China
Guest professor of the Central Academy of Drama
National First-grade Director

His hometown is Zhongshan of Guangdong. In October 7th, 1953, he was born in
Shanghai, China. He went to Longzhen Farm in Heilongjiang in 1970s and served
as agricultural workers. In 1977, he studied at Harbin Drama Theatre as an actor. In
1979, he became a student of department of directing in Central Academy of Drama
and graduated from there in 1984 with the degree of bachelor. In 1984, he served as a
director of the Central Experimental Theatre of China.

Wu Xiaojiang has directed and participated in the performance of three Ibsen dramas
in China, which are An Enemy of the People staged at Central Experimental Drama
Theater, A Doll’s House staged at Central Experimental Drama Theater, and Hedda
(Hedda Gabler) staged at Shanghai Theatre Academy. He also contributed to the
performance of Peer Gynt, a graduation work by the undergraduate students (Class of
1979) of the Department of Directing. He has attended the International Ibsen Seminars
held in Norway and China for several times, and published related papers.

Tania Pires (Brazil)
Actress and Cultural Producer

• Graduated in Theater (1989) and Culture Management (2008) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
• Has been acting in a number of plays in Brazil for 22 years;
• Started a Cultural Production and Management company in Rio, TALU Productions, in
2003 and have been producing plays, shows and festivals since then;
• In 2006 produced and starred in “The Little Eyolf”, by Ibsen, which was on tour in Brazil
for 2 years. The play was selected to the Ibsen Festival in Oslo to represent Brazil.
• Created and produced the “Ibsen Festival” in Brazil in 2006, paying a tribute to Ibsen’s
centennial;
• In 2008 created and produced FESTLIP, an international Theater Festival with
participants from the eight CPLP (The Community of Portuguese-Speaking countries)
representatives: Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, San
Tome and Principe, Cape Verde. The Festival is preparing its 5th edition for 2012;
• Tânia has been invited by the Brazilian Federal Government to represent the cultural
area in the I CPLP Forum, to be held in Brazil in September, 2011;
• Toured all CPLP countries in 2009 organizing theater workshops based on Ibsen’s
dramaturgy , lecturing and teaching theater classes. More than 1.500 theater
professionals from all these countries were involved in this project;
• In 2009 was invited to participate in the “Theater Interchange Policies in CPLP
countries”, held in Coimbra, Portugal;

Natalia Somova (Russia)
Painter and Stage Director
Member of the Russian Artists association
Chief artist at the Moscow Drama Theory and Production Center
Member of the Russian Council of Arts Center

Natalia graduated from The Surikov Art Institute and has dedicated herself to both
experimental and traditional arts. While having all kinds of amazing ideas and styles,
she is also known as a unique and original artist. She has attended many international
exhibitions held in Russia, Europe, and Asia. In 1989, she began to hold solo exhibitions
in Russia and foreign countries. The latest was at Moscow Manege International Art
Exhibition in March, 2011.
In May of 2011, as a director and designer, she staged her first piece of theatre works –
Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, produced by Moscow Drama Theory and Production Center.

Amal Allana (India)
Theatre director and teacher

As an outstanding theatre director and teacher, Amal Allana has devoted all her life to
arts and made numerous achievements, which, like aesthetic principles, have produced
influences on every aspect of the social reality. She has made an extraordinarily
careful observation on human existence and combined her personal sympathy and
understanding with the international vision so as to obtain the general experience of
humankind. Inspired by the tradition of international theatre, her works, which seem
quite “Indian” but are truly “International”, have become an inter-cultural practice with
ideas that go beyond cultural and national narrowness and bias.
Since 2005, she has held the post of president of the International Theatre Institute in
New Delhi, head of the performing department in the Theatre Art and Design College,
and art director of a drama company under the Drama TV Association in New Delhi. In
2010, she started to work as chief director of the “Cultural Heritage” simultaneously, a
famous Indian contemporary art gallery.
Amal Allana graduated from the National School of Drama (India), and then
accomplished her internship at Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and some other
theatres in Germany for two years. So far, she has directed more than 60 stage
shows and numerous TV series. She designed costumes for stage performance and
movies, worked as an exhibition planner, did research and writings about drama, and
participated in many other relevant activities. Meanwhile, she has never stopped her
theatre education in many well-known institutions.
Parts of her stage works: Aadhe Adhure, The Good Person of Setzuan, Khamosh!,
Mahabhoj, King Lear, Himmat Mai, Begum Barve, Erendira & Her Heartless
Grandmother—based on one of Márquez’s short stories, Nati Binodini—based on
the autobiography of Binodini who was an Indian stage performer in the 19th century,
Metropolis—premiered at Ibsen Festival in 2009, based on the Bombay terrorist attack
on November 26, 2008 and adapted Ibsen’s three works, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler,
and A Doll’s House.

Yngvar Julin (Norway)
Scenographer and architect

Yngvar graduated in architecture major, and he now works and lives in Oslo of
Norway. His work ranges from architecture design and museum exhibition to
performing arts. In the past 20 years, he has participated in more than 40 pieces
of stage works, which covers modern dances, new operas, as well as traditional
dramas. He used to work in many major theatres in Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
Poland, and Germany.
Yngvar Julin has already cooperated with Ms. Engel, art and management
director of Ibsen International, on some contemporary arts based on Ibsen. They
endowed most of Ibsen’s works, such as A Doll’s House, Rosmersholm, The
Wild Duck, Lady from the Sea, and many other works, with new concepts in an
amazing and surprising way at Norwegian Ibsen Theatre. Many of Julin’s works
have been staged at the Ibsen Theatre Festivals in India, Bengal, and Norway.

THE NAME BY JON FOSSE
Performance by the Norwegian Theatre (DNT)

Director and composer: Øyvind Osmo Eriksen
Scenography and costume designer: Kari Gravklev
Coreography: Ida Wigdel
Lightdesign: Gøril Høgber

Performers:
The Girl: Ellen Dorrit Petersen
The Boy: Sigurd Myhre
The Sister: Marie Blokhus
The Mother: Hildegun Riise
The Father: Svein Roger Karlsen
The Old Boyfriend: Øyvind Osmo Eriksen

Photo: Erik Berg/DNT

A pregnant girl and her boyfriend move into her parent’s house where the conversation has almost stopped and all necessary tasks have become ritualistic gestures and everybody feels left alone. The play is also about how we are using language to create a more profound meaning that is important to us.

Text translation to Chinese: Lulu Zou

Photo: Erik Berg/DNT

The Norwegian Playwright, Jon Fosse, was introduced to China for the first time in 2010 with the production Someone is Going to Come, translated by Lulu Zou, production by Shanghai Theatre Academy and commissioned by Ibsen International within the program Ibsen in China 2010. Jon Fosse is Norway’s new Ibsen and his work also includes novels, poetry, essays and books for children. He is one of the most produced playwrights in the world and his plays have been translated into more than forty languages. The Name is written in 1994.

Choreographer Ingun Bjørnsgaard has loosely based her work The Sea on Henrik Ibsen’s world famous The Lady from the Sea (1888). Ibsen’s text revolves around the theme of one of the first “modern” women – a woman who in the crossfire between conventions and a burgeoning independence is ensnared by drives that are simultaneously dangerous, repulsive and alluring. There are basic themes here, which also characterize Bjørnsgaard’s expression: boredom, yearning, the need to disappear, obscenity and superficial anxiety. In terms of genre, points of intersection between the universes of Ibsen and Bjørnsgaard can also be found: indiscernible transitions between tragedy and comedy, and an extensive use of mirror- and shadow formations as compositional parameters.

In The Sea the subjective yearning for freedom is implemented in a current context: a time in which the self is perceived as a stream of many possible identities. What type of freedom is possible in a world where ambivalence reigns and self-contempt resides next door to self-aggrandization?

Bjørnsgaard’s characters often struggle with the sense of being both attractive and unworthy – simultaneously – and are therefore seemingly relinquished to a game with unclear rules of play.

In the works of Bjørnsgaard human beings appear most beautiful and most human when they fail.

For more info about Guangdong Modern Dance Festival, please visit their homepage.

Workshop collaboration between National Ballet of China and Ibsen International presented on April 23 and 24 at Tianqiao Theatre Beijing

The National Ballet of China and Ibsen International are for the first time collaborating on a workshop presenting young Chinese and international choreographers with a dance piece inspired by The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen choreographed by Un-Magritt Nordseth. She is chosen because of her long and great experience in working with dance and text

 

“The workshop offers a platform for talented young Chinese artists with dreams and inspiration to make full use of their abilities and take part in the creation, including choreography, lighting and design,” Work Shop’s director Fei Bo told the Global Times.

 

“After the original works The Red Detachment of Women and Raise the Red Lantern, the National Ballet of China has always tried to create new pieces, however, the lack of choreographers has been a barrier and this is why we founded Work Shop,” added NBC director Feng Ying.

 

The workshop is part of Ibsen in China 2011 supported and presented by The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing and the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

A Dance piece inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea

 

• Choreographer: Un-Magritt Nordseth
• Composer: Jørgen Munkeby
• Assistant to the Choreographer: Kristian Alm
• Light designer: Deng Wen
• Producers: Feng Ying, Inger Buresund
• Coordinator: Rigmor Johnsen
• Co-production: National Ballet of China and Ibsen International

 

Premiere National Ballet of China, April 23 & 24, 2011, Tianqiao Theatre, Beijing

My dance piece is inspired by the piece of Henrik Ibsen’s “The Lady from the Sea”. We meet Ellida and the Stranger, the two step – daughters and the dying Lyngstrand. The ballet is not a story telling piece, but tries to give a feeling, – an atmosphere of the melancholy that is connected to Ellida’s moody and disturbed longing for the open sea and the Stranger.

Un-Magritt Nordseth, choreographer

Un-Magritt Nordseth is a Norwegian choreographer and is currently engaged as Artistic Director for the National House of Dance in Norway.

After finishing The College University of the Arts in Norway in 1984, she ran her own dance-theatre company for more than ten years. She has also choreographed for all the main theatres in Norway.

From 2003 she was one of Theatre Ibsen’s main directors and choreographers for performances like Peer Gynt and Hamlet among others. In 2004 Theatre Ibsen’s Peer Gynt was invited to Beijing and was shown at Tianqiao Theatre.

For the Ibsen Year 2006 Un-Magritt Nordseth was one of three directors invited to join Theatre Ibsen’s Grand Tour of Ibsen with several excerpts from Ibsen’s play, performed in- and outdoor.

In the same year Theatre Ibsen was invited to do A Doll’s House in China in collaboration with the Beijing Modern Dance Company. Un-Magritt Nordseth was both the director and choreographer of this contemporary dance-theatre piece called Hunting for Nora.

In 2008 she directed The Lady from the Sea for the Centre for Asian Theatre in Dhaka, Bangladesh which later opened the Delhi Ibsen Festival in India the same year.

She has also worked with family productions for the young audience, – including Art for the very small people (0-3) The productions has been shown in London, Hungary, Paris, Germany and Egypt.

 

Summary of The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen

Prose play in five acts. Written in 1888.

On the west cost of Norway, Ellida Wangel is married to a doctor much older than  herself, and has two daughters by a previous marriage. She can no longer bring herself to sleep with her husband, being haunted by the memory of a sailor she had met years before, who had betrothed her to himself by linking their rings on a key-ring and casting them into the sea. She knows that he has killed a man, but cannot free herself from him. He reappears and asks her to come away with him, and she is powerless to resist. Wangel, her husband, having failed to persuade her, gives her leave to go, fearing that otherwise she will cross the brink into insanity. Once he says this, her compulsion to join the stranger leaves her. “I was free to choose the unknown, so I was free to reject it”.

Michael Meyer

 

 

Ibsen Live in China – An exhibition

The exhibition will focus on the Ibsen reception in China from the early 1900’s to the present, with interviews and other documentation on contemporary Ibsen productions.

Opens in Hangzhou 5. October and will also be presented together with all the other events in Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing

Produced by Ibsen International in cooperation with Nanjing University and the Chinese- Nordic Cultural Centre.

Project manager in China Dong Hongmei

Project manager in Norway Inger Buresund

The Exhibition:

Introduction of Jon Fosse in China as Norway’s new Ibsen

Someone Is Going to Come

A poetic play of paranoia and sexual jealousy by one of the world’s most celebrated playwrights, Someone Will Come involves a man and a woman who move to an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere in order to be alone together. From the beginning, however, they grow anxious that “someone is going to come”. And sure enough, someone does come…

Written by: Jon Fosse

Translated by and performance dramaturge: Lulu Zou

Artistic supervisor: Han Sheng (President STA)

Director: He Yan

Producer: Zhang Jun

Image design: Jiahua Xu

Stage design: Tong Weilie

Light design: Tan Hua

Performers: Sun Ningfang, Ma Xiaofeng, Xu Shengnan

Produced by: Shanghai Theatre Academy

Commissioned by: Ibsen International – Inger Buresund

 

Jon Fosse – Norwegian author and dramatist.

Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart (Red, black). His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry, children’s books, essays and plays. His works have been translated into more than forty languages. He is widely considered as one of the world’s greatest contemporary playwrights. With The play Someone is going to come, translated by Lulu Zou, the Chinese theatre audience will meet Jon Fosse´s text for the first time on a theatre stage.

Han Sheng – Artistic Supervisor

Han Sheng, 1985 graduated from the Shanghai Theater Academy stage art department, worked as assistant, lecturer, associate professor and deputy director of Stage Art Department, Directing Department. Vice president of the Shanghai Theatre from 2004, in September 2009 he was appointed president of Shanghai Theater Academy. His works as a stage designer include: the Cantonese operas “Home”, “Butterfly Dreams”, the drama “Peony Pavilion”, the film “King Lan Ling” and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony as creative designer. Has received numerous awards including “outstanding expert” of the Ministry of Culture, “leading talents in Shanghai” and “Dawn scholar” award.

Zou Lulu – Translator and dramaturg

Lulu Zou is a published translator and scholar in theatre arts. She is a professor with Shanghai Theatre Academy. Her translation works of dramas, films and other literary works have been published and performed in and outside of China. In recent years she’s been focusing on the study of the contemporary Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse. Her publications include “The end of the World—- Key Images in Jon Fosse’s Plays” published (2010 , Theatre Arts). She traslated numerous scripts including Jon Fosse’s (“Deathvariations”, “Someone Is Going to Come”, “The Name”, “Dream of Autumn”, “A Summer’s Day”, “The Guitar Man” and others), Jenny Kemp (“The Black Sequin Dress”), A. R. Gurney (“The Dining Room”) and numerous literary and academic essays.

He Yan – Director

Associate Professor, Deputy Dean of Acting Department, Tutor of MA course in acting. Responsible for the education of bachelor and master students in Acting Department, Shanghai Theatre Academy.

He Yan has directed more than 20 productions including Black Comedy, A Streetcar Named Desire, Les Séquestrés d’Altona, Mort sans sépulture, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Seagull.  His participated to the Singapore Art Festival (1995), the International Acting Workshops organized by UNESCO Chair International Theatre Institute, Turin Art Festival (Italy) and his plays were staged in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2008 he visited Germany for cultural exchange activity.

His recent research include: training on the body and voice of actors, open scene training, improvisational acting, body culture of actors.

Tong Weilie – Stage designer

Graduated from Shanghai theater academy of drama stage design professional stage. He is now working at Shanghai theater academy, stage design faculty. His creations include the stage design for “bodhisattva ridge”, “the crucible”, “field”, the musicals “Notre Dame de Paris” and “instant not forever” and others.

Jiahua Xu – image designer

Professor of Department of Stagecraft, Director of Department of stage costume and make-up of Shanghai Theater Academy. His works took part to numerous events including the Opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Opening ceremony of the Corporate Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010, the multimedia operas “Master Hong Yi” (2010) and “Turandot” directed by Zhang Yimou (2009), Opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008.

Tan Hua –  lighting designer

Graduated in 2006 from the Department of Fine Arts Stage of the Central Academy of Drama with a master degree in light design. Currently teaching at the Shanghai Drama Institute, Department of Stage Design. His works as a light designer include the musical “Song of the film” (2010), Guangzhou Yue Opera “travel Theatre” (2010), “Red Rose and White Rose” (2008 and 2010), the ballet “The Seasons” and others.

Performance Photos

 

Report on the Festival:

Students from several universities in China participated in the project with performances on stage at Nanjing University. They participated in a competition and were assessed by a jury. In addition, Shanti Brahmachari led interviews with approximately 80 students who participated in the performances which took part in the final festival.

The report is divided into three parts. The first part will present the seven competing performances; part two provides information on the work of the jury; and part three will present some impressions from the dialogue meetings with the students.

Part 1: Ibsen Festival for University Students

The first International Ibsen Festival for students took place in Nanjing between 22^nd-24^th October 2010. It was produced by Nanjing University and The Chinese Nordic Cultural Centre (CNCC) in collaboration with Ibsen International.

There were 20 groups who were interested in participating in the festival and sent their contributions to the festival committee. Of these, nine groups, from all over China were chosen by a jury to participate in the final festival in Nanjing. The submitted works came from Universities from all over the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Nanjing.

Goodbye, My Doll Life by the School of liberal Arts, China University of Mining and Technology

The play is adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of D’Urbervilles. It presents two women of different times and displays their exploration of love and their awakening of self-awareness. Nora’s “dolllike love” and Tess’s “blind love” compose the play’s main plot. Love’s sweetness and blindness in different time and space demonstrate the similar life track of the two heroines. The play intends to display the adapter’s interpretation of love, that is, love as a shoulder-to -shoulder journey of two independent souls, always separate but forever interdependent.

The play is performed in English.

Hedda Gabler by the University of International Business and Economics

The play is adapted from Rolf Fjelde’s English version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler with a focus on the love affairs among Hedda, Eilert Løvborg and fru Elvstad. The adaptation uses the narrative method of modern play with the performance commencing and ending in great tension.

Hedda Gabler by the School of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

The play is adapted from the third act of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, exposing Hedda’s attitudes towards the male protagonists and their conflicts. The adaptation also adds some new episodes by using montage. It shows Hedda’s multiple images.

A Doll in House by School of Liberal Arts, Northwestern University The play adopts the theme and concept of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Set in Chinese context, the performance exposes the family conflict between husband and wife, parents and children. It is an alternative imaginative and postmodern interpretation of the original theme with a combination of realist illustration and expressionist illusion. It also combines tragic and comic elements. It strives to achieve alienation by using montage.

Play! Wow! Chi, Cha, Go! by Shanghai International Studies University

This performance is based on A Doll House. It uses interviews with “Helmer” and presents his past and present life respectively before and after Nora leaves. It also displays three types of modern “Noras”. More like a farce, the play intends to entertain the audience and meanwhile satirize the over-entertainised society. Game show host format based on local popular ring in chat show.

The Wild Duck by Nanjing University and Nanjing Audit University

The play is adapted from Ibsen’s Wild Duck. It is performed as a traditional Chinese opera, with live musicians.

Part 2: The Jury and the Selection of a winner

The task of the jury was to select one best performace, and in addition three excellent performances, best female and male actor, and best director.

The jury members were:

He Chengzhou, professor, Nanjing University

Wu Xiaojiang, Artistic Director Chinese National Theatre

Shanti Brahmachari, Theatre director ArtXchange- Ibsen International

The criteria for selection was originality and innovation and how the text was linked to contemporary social issues, artistic quality (direction, acting, writing, form) and the ability to communicate with the audience.

Many performances were of very high artistic quality with interesting and innovative interpretations of Ibsen’s plays. Some performances used Ibsen’s original texts, others created new plays inspired by Ibsen, some performances were combinations of one Ibsen’s dramas interlinked or integrated with texts by other authors, poets and contemporary playwrights. Many groups presented refreshing new interpretations of Ibsen often combining artistic forms and traditions like European and Chinese classical theatre, performance text and improvisation, dance and Peking Opera forms.

In particular, two of the performances presented interesting and innovative productions, of a high artistic quality, which communicated particularly well with a young audience. Both performances were based on “A Doll House”. Northwestern University presented a new contemporary text, based on the ideas in Ibsen’s original play, while Shanghai International Studies University presented a modern television Chat show performance called ”Wow! Chi, cha, Go!” Where, Ibsen’s characters are propelled into the 21^st century. Northwestern University won the competition, with high acting standards, comic language in a contemporary interpretation with a focus on gender/ family issues and generational issues in China today. This production will visit Norway in May 2011 and perform in Bergen at The Bergen International Festival and Oslo.

Part 3: Dialogue meetings with students

During the Festival in Nanjing there were set up several dialogue meetings with the performing students to discuss their choice of play, understanding of Ibsen and the artistic processes. Five dialogue meetings between the project manager and student groups of 15-20 people were organised. The meetings used the plays as a vehicle to discuss which contemporary social and familiar issues are relevant for young people in China today. The Doll House and Hedda Gabler became the basis for discussions on topics like gender issues, the relationship between the young and older generation, women’s opportunity to combine family with education and work, relationships between men and women, marriage, etc. An Enemy of the People turned into discussion on social control at a micro level as well as wider society, and opportunity for young people to express ideas and views which are not in line with excepted views in family, local community, or wider society. Students may meet real challenges in life and be forced to consider giving up their ideals.

The dialogue meetings illustrated clearly the relevance of Ibsen’s plays in contemporary China. It is particularly interesting that the students who participated came from a number of different disciplinary areas; they were engineers, economists, who studied mining, agriculture as well as languages and arts. They also came from many different parts of China. All groups actively engaged in the discussion on the relevance of Ibsen for contemporary China today and used the plays to communicate and express their understanding of personal and social challenges and how it is to be a young person in China today.

Our experience from the Ibsen Festival 2010 is that Ibsen’s plays became a platform for communication and discussion on social life we all share as human beings: relationships, particularly family and male –female relationships, equality in marriage, family structure, education, status, social control and pressure, etc. In this way, Ibsens works have created a vehicle for communication across cultures on issues in young people’s lives in China. We want to develop this aspect of the programme in 2011 by actively engaging young people from Norway and China to meet and use their interpretation of Ibsen’s plays to communicate on the above mentioned issues and themes.

Shanti Brahmachari

Adaptation from Ibsen’s The Lady From The Sea in Chinese Yue Opera Form

Production by Hangzhou Yue Opera Company, commissioned by Ibsen International.

5 and 6 October
Main Theatre, Student Center, Zhejiang Gongshang Univeristy, Hangzhou

14 and 15 October
Yi Fu Stage, Shanghai

 

Direction: Zhan Min

Music: Liu Jiankuan,  Li Yanhua

Setdesign:Dai Xiaoyun , Xu Xiji

Costyme: Lan Ling

Lightdesign:Wang Yibo

Music Accompanist:

Tong  Fangmiao ,  Ji Chun , Zhao Guangting , Song  Xulai ,

Huang  Weihong,  Jiang Junliang ,  Wu Hanyin,  Yu Xiamei

Performers:

Lida: Xie Qunying

Dr. Fan: Shi  Huilan

Bolai:  Wang Xiaohui

Anhong:Chen Xueping

The stranger/sailor: Xu Ming

 

Synopsis of The Lady From The sea

Ming dynasty, an island, a festive night. Lida eagerly waits for her sweetheart, sailor Jiang Siteng, who hastily arrives only to bid her good-bye. Falsely accused of killing his captain in a tavern brawl, he decides to run away but promises to come back to fetch her.  By the sea under the moon, the two enact an engagement ritual and toss their interlocked rings into the sea, vowing eternal love.With no news from Jiang Siteng for  many years, Lida is now resigned to her marriage to Fan Ge, a much older widowed country doctor on the mainland. The normalcy of life was disrupted when their young son died.  Rejecting her husband and his attempts to heal her, a grief-stricken Lida seems to verge on a mental breakdown. Dr. Fan asks Bolai, his daughter from the previous marriage, to reach out to her step-mother.Lida reveals to Bolai her secrete engagement to a sailor, whom she had virtually forgotten until she saw him again in the eyes of her dying son. In return, Bolai admits that she also harbors a longing for the  sea, because she remains fascinated by the sea legends told by her former tutor, Anhong, who happens to be Lida’s hometown neighbor.  Dr. Fan invites Anhong back from the island for a visit, hoping it may help Lida.  Anhong’s return not only changes the course of his relationship with Bolai, but also brings the news of Lida’s sailor, who shows up presently to ask Dr. Fan to release his wife. In the moon light, Lida and her sailor are making a run for the sea…..

What happens next? Will our lady of the sea follow her sailor to the end of the earth? Or will she return to the fold of her life with the doctor?

 

About Yue Opera

Yue Opera, performed by all female actors, is one of the most popular traditional operas in China. It originated in Zhejiang province, which used to be the state of Yue in the ancient time. It started as a form of story-telling and ballad-singing, evolving into a theatrical genre with the addition of dramatic structure and an orchestra. Yue Opera is particularly strong in its lyrical touch, with singing and gesturing as its main acting modes. Its arias follow certain patterns which are delicate and beautiful, reflecting the special aura of southern China. In the past 100 years, Yue Opera has established its own distinct style while learning from other theatrical structures such as Beijing Opera, Kunqu Opera, Shao Opera, modern drama, and film and television.

 

The Director of Hedda and The Lady From the Sea – Zhan Min

By Pu Bo.

Being in contact with Ibsen’s famous works such as A Doll’s House since his youth , Mr Zhan is still very interested in Ibsen’s work. He is vice president of Hangzhou Yue Opera Company and was in charge of the play Hedda and now also for The Lady From The Sea.

 

 

 

 

– Tell us about your work on Hedda – Aspiration Sky High

Interestingly, in the Yue opera, the name of drama is Aspiration Sky High instead of Hedda Gabler. In this new Yue play, we creatively transplanted the story in ancient China, new look, fully integrated into the Oriental culture. The audience had found that in the play, the scene and the characters had been removed to ancient Chinese, but, most important thing is , the sprit of original work is never changed.

In 2005 , Aspiration Sky High was premiered. Its excerpt went to Oslo in January , 2006, as part of the gala performance inaugurating the Ibsen Year and was highly acclaimed. HYO’s actresses were received by the Norwegian King and Queen, and were invited back with full production in September to participate in the Ibsen Festival. In May, 2006, Aspiration Sky High was a part of the Forth Beijing International Theatre Festival.

– What will be the main difference from Hedda to the Lady?

 

Two plays are all selected from Ibsen’s plays. By comparison, Hedda Gabler, reflects the era of the West a century ago. Hedda is one of the first fully developed neurotic heroines of literature. She is neither logical nor insane in the old sense of being random and unaccountable. Her aims and her motives have a secret personal logic of their own. She gets what she wants, but what she wants is not anything that the normal usually admit, publicly at least, to be desirable. While The Lady from the sea is about a lady called Ellida, the play show a special woman’s choice of freedom and identity recognition, as well as the relationship of body and environment, the existence and ideal of women. Interestingly, this play is more in-depth psychology of women and easier to be accepted by modern Chinese audiences.

Although two plays are all about human freedom especially about freedom of women ,but the way of expression is different, Hedda is walking towards the ruin and suicide herself in the end, while Ellida went back to self- identity recognition ,and longed to find herself what was exactly herself, it’s the main differences of these two plays.

The reason way the their outcomes are different is their backgrounds. Hedda want to conquer men, but in the fact she fail, Ellida want to find the love, and finally she find the truth of life.

– Is it common that the leading character in Yue Opera is a woman?

Yes, it’s common, but actually in the Yue Opera one play is often starred by actors and similarly by actresses, we called Xiaosheng and Huadan, the former has examples such as The butterfly lovers, Dream of the red chamber and Kongzi etc. , the latter like Hedda and The Lady From The Sea are also very common. Some very famous Opera’s actors are men who act as female character on stage and look more feminine than a woman. Many specific drama characters (e.g. the Monkey King ) have their own specified mask.

– Will these two Ibsen plays make a change in the tradition of Yue Opera? If yes, how?

 

Perhaps this situation has already occurred, you know, cause Chinese Opera has a tradition and a set of pattern, one of significant feature is playing stories through dancing and singing, their so-called stage time is slow, while in the western dramas, the time is normal, this let you concentrate and focus on the story. Western drama has patterns itself.

By comparison, Yue Opera also play to their advantage, big plus interpretation of scholar-beauty of snuggling lingering, the hero and heroine of the Empress Dowager of love, manifesting Earned dripping. Script monologue, dialogue gentle graceful, like “The Peony Pavilion”, “The West Chamber” or “butterfly” in the fore, it is well known. The adaption of these two plays, make a change in the tradition of Yue Opera, for we are now facing the problem how to combine the advantages of both. Chinese and Western charm, creating a new chapter in Yue opera artistic innovation.

– What will be your main focus in the Lady?

In this play, I will face more challenges than the former one. In order to improve the understanding of audience, I will find the different ways of stage expression , including add a narrator, this deal can also improve the effect of the whole play. The actors would be limited within the five people, except this main-plot-narrator. In additional, I firmly belie that alienation effect would strengthen the Artistic influence of this new play. Like in the Hedda, we use the long sleeve to express the feeling of character, in The Lady From The Sea these kinds of exploration would not stop. In china we have a vivid idioms to express this situation, called “employ different methods with equal success”

 

Hangzhou Yue Opera Company

 

Since its founding over 50 years ago, Hangzhou Yue Opera Company has become a key art performing institute in Hangzhou City. For half a century, the theatre created and performed more than 100 different performances, trained groups of outstanding talents and gained profound achievements, well received by domestic and overseas audiences of all ages. Especially in recent years, the theatre continuously cultivated excellent actors, created great plays, gained effectiveness, has achieved outstanding success.

Hangzhou Yue Opera Company has created a series of plays deeply welcome by the audiences and affirmed positively by the opera experts. The main plays include “Winter Story”, “River of Rouge”, “Lotus Lake”, “Pear Flower Love”, “Flower Floating Brook”, “Winter Bird”, “Amorous Dream of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai”, “Love Along River Qu”, “Juvenile Emperor”, “Cutting Flower Love”, “Walking and Singing on the Avenue”, “A Wisp Flax”, “Hedda or Aspiration Sky High”, “The New Lion’s Roar”, “Women Street” and some reserved traditional Yue Opera classics, such as “Jade Hairpin”, “Jade Dragonfly”, “He Wenxiu”, “Pearl Tower”, “Emperor’s Complain”, “Inquiring Husband”, “Snow Marriage”, “Meng Lijun”, “The Story of Burning Incense”, “Chen Sanliang” and so on.

Hangzhou Yue Opera Company has a wealth of shining talented Yue Opera stars with various performing genres, of whom many have already won admirable prizes and titles of art star in various national, provincial and municipal opera fairs. Some young excellent actresses, such as Xie Qunying, Chen Xiaohong and Chen Xueping, have respectively won the 15^th, the 19^th and the 24^th “Plum Blossom Awards”, the highest honorary award to individuals in the national opera arena. Xie Qunying and Chen Xiaohong also won the “Wenhua Performing Prizes” awarded by Ministry of Culture. Shen Zhumin and Zhou Yujun respectively won the 13^th and 19^th Shanghai “White Magnolia” Opera Performing Supporting Actor and Leading Actor Prizes. Hangzhou Yue Opera Theatre has made breakthroughs successively to win the national level prizes. “Pear Flower Love” participated in the 5^th National Opera Festival as the only Yue Opera play and won 11 prizes including the “Excellent Play Prize” and etc. It also won the 8^th “Wenhua New Play Prize” awarded by Ministry of Culture, “China Cao Yu Drama Award”, “Luxun Literature Prize” of Zhejiang Government and “Five-One Project Prize” of Zhejiang Province. The fairy story music drama “Winter Bird” took part in the National Excellent Children Play Exhibit held once every four years and won the “Excellent Play Prize”(the first place) , together with other 9 single prizes. It was also awarded the national “Five-One Project Prize”, the 10^th “Wenhua New Play Prize” of Ministry of Culture, “China Cao Yu Drama Award”, “Luxun Literature Prize” of Zhejiang Government and “Five-One Project Prize” of Zhejiang Province. Besides, “Winter Bird” also won the “Special Honorary Prize” in South Korea International Youth and Children Art Festival and it was invited twice by the Ministry of Culture to Beijing for performance. “Flower Floating Brook” won the “Wenhua New Play Prize” in the 7^th National Art Festival, “China Cao Yu Drama Award”, “Luxun Literature Prize” of Zhejiang Government, 19 prizes including the “New Play Prize” and the “Audience Most Favored Play Prize” in the 9^th Zhejiang Opera Festival and the 3^rd “Japan-China Drama Friendship Prize”. “Hedda or Aspiration Sky High” went to Norway twice to attend Ibsen Drama Festival and Memorial Activities, took part in the 3^rd Paris Chinese Opera Festival in France and won the “Most Innovative Award” and the “Best Young Actor Prize”. What’s more, it also won the Silver Prize in National Yue Opera Art Festival, “Five-One Project Prizes” of Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou City and the “Play Award” in the 10^th Zhejiang Opera Festival. The new light comedy “A Wisp Flax” won the “Play Award” in the 10^th Zhejiang Opera Festival. “Walking and Singing on the Avenue” which reflects the Confucius culture won the “Five-One Project Prize” of Zhejiang Province. Urban modern drama “Women Street” won the “Five-One Project Prizes” of Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou City.

Most of the plays presented by Hangzhou Yue Opera Company are generally permeated with strong local cultural characteristics of Hangzhou as a famous historic cultural city. They enjoy unique artistic charm and are widely welcome by people at home and abroad. For years, Hangzhou Yue Opera Company has been playing an active role in the performance arena in some major cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Tianjin, Changsha, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, etc. The theatre was invited to take part in the international events in Japan, Korea and Norway respectively for twice and France for once, and visited USA, France, Canada, Brazil and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions for many times with performances, all with great success.

Hangzhou Yue Opera Company has a very good reputation in China. With numerous talented Yue Opera performers’ dedicated devotion, it presents an exciting atmosphere of vivid prosperity. It is marching steadily towards the glorious tomorrow of art.

 

The main actress in The Lady From The Sea Xie Qunying

By Pu Bo

– What do you think about the character Ellida Wangel?

From the introduction that I have gotten, I known that this play is about a lady called Ellida. She is the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper, and grew up where the fjord met the open sea; she loves the sea. She is married to a doctor in a small town in the mountains. Ten years earlier Ellida was deeply in love and engaged to a sailor, but because he murdered his captain he had to escape. Nevertheless, he asked her to wait for him to come and fetch her. She tried to break the engagement but he had too great a hold over her. Many years later the sailor returns to claim her. However she then has to choose between her lover or her husband. Dr Wangel finally recognizes her freedom to choose since he understands that he has no other options. Sfter this Ellida chooses her husbond. The play ends with the sailor leaving and Ellida and Wangel taking up their lives together. – In my opinion, Ellida is daughter of sea, she can’t be content living with a normal doctor, for she has her own purpose of life: pursuing the freedom. She is a mixture of wild and naive. While she got the freedom, she made the choice for herself, surprisingly, she chooses taking up their lives together. This strange end maybe tells people what is the true freedom of human.

– How will you work to find her?

In Yue Opera version of The Lady From The Sea, the author of the adaptation reduced the figures to five: Lida (Ellida), sailor (the stranger) medical doctor (Dr. Wangel), a daughter and a narrator.

I fully understanding the sprit of this opera, it does not seem strange to the Chinese, I can consider the whole theme is identity recognition of a woman, also I can say the deeper meaning is about harmony of life, about compromise of human and the environment .The freedom is important, before we possess it, it is hard to find, but after we own the freedom, we will choice the true life. Is it right? By the way, Yue Opera is a perfect combination of ancient Chinese music, poetry and dance. Harmony and balance are two very important concepts in a Chinese opera. The actors and actresses must find the suitable way to express the feeling through singing and dancing by stepping on the musical trays and drums.

 

– Thoughts about marriage in China today, passion or sensibility?

Marriage is now viewed as an entirely private affair. Lifestyles have diversified into those of celibacy, single-parent families and cohabitation. People select the mode they believe will make them happy, rather than going along with the majority. Marriage and the family in rural and urban China are evolving into more diversified, rational, and progressive institutions, as the concept of gender equality becomes more widely accepted. Nowadays, people tend to adapt to the environment instead of pursuing for freedom regardless of surrounding. Actually I believe that this is the theme of the drama, Ibsen wants to tell people what to do before we own the freedom and after we possess the freedom.

 

The main actress in Hedda Zhou Yujun

By Pu Bo

– Is it different to play a usual Yue opera female role and Hedda?

I don’t know how to play a drama, for I have not yet got a opportunity to act in a drama, but I think I fully understanding the feeling and situation of the role through reading and reading the script, for I believe that there is no obstacle between a drama script and a Yue opera script. Talk about the Hedda, unlike the other people’s opinion, I consider that she is a pure woman with very simple feeling. So, firstly, I need to find her, then I should do like Hedda does, and say what Hedda says. Hedda’s behavior delegates the common people’s desire. As a woman, I think we are all the same. But the difference is Hedda’s character is straight forward. To deal with the character the best way is to understand myself well, for every woman has same feeling. By the way, in Yue Opera ,we have traditional way to train actors and actresses which be called “four skills in the five Law”, like in Traditional Chinese Medicine , we stress so-called eight principles. I use the way of Yue Opera such as sleeve dance and hand-eye coordination physical performance to express the feeling of Hedda, equally of myself.

– How did you work to find all the different sides of Hedda?

To fully understanding the character of Hedda, I need to overcome the sense of reality, the different backgrounds of two centuries, besides there still is something to overcome, such as the cultural background and atmosphere. Tough I regard the Hedda as a noble, proud, inferiority, and simple woman, her pride is born naturally, to put it on the stage, I still have long way to go. The process include the pieces from imitation, anatomy, other company rehearse, improvement, constantly changing and adjustment, exploring through practice to prove being successful.

I must concentrate on the main method’s expression through the action, I must lean on the advantage of Yue Opera ,for it’s good at aesthetic, but the shortcoming is that a actor or actress always need to hide the truth of the character. On the stage I present a kind of character and remember that it is Hedda’s other side of the character too.

 

– How was the reaction from the audience?

From beginning, the experts worried about the character of the role, for on the people’s traditional opinion, Hedda is not a good woman. But actually, in a modern theatre, audience’s opinion is changing rapidly, for example, nowadays, the younger generations have become accustomed to watch something broken on the stage, instead of watching the simple plots such as “one good turn deserves another”. Approximately, about one fourth of the audience could not accept the Haida(Hedda) five years ago. The reason is simple, they said that there is no such person around like Haida, gradually, more and more people accept it .

– In your opinion do you think that Ibsen’s text changed the content of the Yue Opera?

No, the main difference of the drama and Yue Opera is the way of story-telling as well as the adaptation. The original drama have length of five acts, but we only choose one act. Besides, in the end of the play, I use the different suicide method by a sword instead of by a gun.

All performance photos above from Aspiration Sky High, adapted from Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler

 

Performance Photos, “The Lady From The Sea”

 

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