India to Norway through theatre

As the curtain rose and Ila Arun took stage as the narrator for Mareechhika back in 2010, she didn’t realise that eight years down the line she will be standing in front of His Majesty, King Harald V to receive one of the highest honorary awards - Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, Knight 1st Class.  

The journey started in 2010, when Ila was invited for the Ibsen Festival in Delhi to present her adaptation on Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea. Looking back at the event, Ila says, “I was first invited for the festival in Delhi which had various productions from India and abroad. The theme for that year was ‘Ibsen in tradition’. It means whatever Ibsen wrote, 150 years back, it’s still valid in today’s time. And since the topic was tradition, we had to keep in mind the form and how to adapt it.”

Ibsen actor from Norway Kare Conradi with Ila Arun

To make it her own, Ila named her play Mareechhika, which translates to mirage, and is aptly set in the backdrop of a desert in Rajasthan. “The character is like a deer in a desert where she thinks there is water. There is no water, but she still looks for it. That is the condition of the women in our society especially in rural society. You cannot open your heart or disclose your desire,” says Ila. The plot of Ibsen’s play and its relevance in today’s world drew Ila. The story line revolves around a woman, who falls in love but is forced to marry another much older than her. “This still happens in Rajasthan in today’s time. This was based in Europe but it fit for me because here also, we often see cases of child marriage. Because of poverty, they are married to a much older person, Now this play is about a woman having a choice of freedom. She should at least have the right to ask for what she wants,” she  adds. Apart from the frightening relevance even 150 years later, Ila also admires the strong women characters in Ibsen’s plays. She says, “In Ibsen’s plays, somewhere or the other, the women character find their own voice.”  

However, adapting is not an easy task. The secret of a successful play lies in the way the plot unfolds. She says, “The meaning of adaptation in my opinion is not just translation, it should never look borrowed, whether it is their costume, language, geographical condition, or their perspective, everything has to be changed.”

Talking about problems in adapting a European play for Indian audience, she says, “I took The Lady from The Sea, and placed it in the desert, so I have to be correct geographically.” Being familiar with the culture of Rajasthan helped Ila build a background, but when she decided to place Peer Gynt adaptation of Peer Ghani in Kashmir, she faced some problems. She continues,  “But the most difficult was Peer Gynt, because in that play Ibsen had borrowed a lot of element from local mythology. So, for them they have a clear concept of troll, but here there is nothing like troll. So now if I have to say something like ‘In our lives, in Kashmir, elements like trolls have made their way in,’ how do I say this?” she questions. “Peer Gynt was most difficult because originally it was an eight-and-a-half hour poem and it has a Norwegian meter. So as a writer, I enjoyed this challenge of  adding some meter in my adaptation. I usually write in Hindi but I wanted to have the dialogues in Urdu. So for that I had to talk to a lot of people, and if there is anything close to my heart it’s Peer Gynt which I called Peer Ghani,” she adds.

Another adaptation of Ibsen’s work is The Ghost, where she gave a spin to the plotline with references from Mahabharata and has a strong female character. “The Ghost, which was also based in Rajasthan; has a female character who questions the priest and religion. Here, I took reference from Mahabharata, where the five brothers ask Kunti about Draupadi and she asks them  to share among themselves. In my play, I ask ‘Was it rabdi that you can just divide among yourselves?’ Why did she not intervene? The mother asked and the sons followed, but what happened to her? I want the women to have that kind of power where she can speak her mind.”

Even at 66, Ila’s voice has an enthusiasm of a teenager when she talks about spreading her message through theatre. “I’m not an NGO, I’m not a politician, whatever I can convey is through stage, which I have been doing fot the last 40 years. Our group Surnai theatre and folk art foundation, used to perform in Prithvi Theatre when Jeniffer was alive.That was when I did my first production. I have done so much theatre when I was in National School Of Drama or in Jaipur. So I have a sensibility when it comes to speech.” Not just acting, Ila is now into directing, adapting, writing as well as giving music to her plays.  But in the past 40 years, everything has changed, and so has theatre. With new styles and form, the level of experimenting has also increased. However, the new form does not impress Ila and she says, “Many people like to experiment, they think Ibsen is outdated. There is a new trend, where they don’t want text but only subtext. To give support to subtext, you need the basic text. With the help of text, we brought subtext. Now you are saying erase the words and interpret. But for that, we have folk forms! We have Kathakali, Odissi and they have expressions and emotions. But why should I interpret Ibsen and make him more complicated? I want Ibsen’s work to reach people and teach where they are wrong,” says Ila as she  narrates about the time when she was in Norway and got to know about this award. “The order of merit, Knight First Class that I received is 4th in the rank and above that all are for army and royalty. So it feels good. But now, I won’t be able to sleep at night as my responsibilities have increased,” she laughs.

 Ila is currently working on adapting Hedda Gabler to Hardeep Kaur Gill, which will be based in Mumbai. Talking about the connection of Hedda Gabler to India, Ila says, “You can find girls like Hedda Gabler in Mumbai. They come here, they are frustrated with their problems, they have a past, but they don’t say anything.” It will be interesting to see the kind of strong female character we get from this adaptation.