A festival for theatre lovers

A portrait of Henrik Ibsen

The 11-day festival begins on May 10. The commemoration programme will run at four venues of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academytheatre festival at the National Theatre Stage and Experimental Theatre Stage, painting exhibition at National Art Gallery and movie screening at the Plaza of National Art Gallery.

The commemoration programme begins with an exhibition of works by 32 Bangladeshi painters titled 'Images of Ibsen's Life and Plays'. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Aud Lise Norheim, the Norwegian ambassador, at the National Art Gallery, where eminent artists Murtaja Baseer and Syed Jahangir will hold discussions.

On the following day, two legendary theatre activists -- Ebrahim Alkazi of India and Terje Maerli of Norway will be honoured at the National Theatre Stage for of their outstanding contribution to theatre. The main event -- a theatre festival titled 'Staging Ibsen in Asia' will begin on May 11 through staging of Resurrection, a Centre for Asian Theatre (CAT) production. Besides CAT, two more Bangladeshi troupes -- Aranyak Natya Dal and Kanthoshilon -- will stage plays. Foreign troupes included in the festival are -- National School of Drama (NSD) Repertory, Ibsen Performance Group, Arohan Theatre, Ajoka Theatre, Workshop in Heaven, Anya Chetana and Damama. Moreover, troupes from different institutions of Bangladesh such as Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Khulna University and IDCCC, Chittagong will stage one play each.

Other attractions of the programme are movie screenings, seminars, street theatre, staging of plays at the district level and the launch of publications.

Besides the events, in the International Ibsen Conference titled 'Socio-political Aspects of Ibsen's Plays' scholars and theatre practitioners from Asia, Europe and Africa will attend. The keynote address will be presented by Merete Morken Andersen.

Convenor of the festival Kamaluddin Nilu, who is also the general secretary of CAT, said, "Seventy three countries are celebrating Ibsen commemoration '06 to observe the death centennial of Henrik Ibsen. And 'Ibsen Commemoration '06 in Bangladesh' is the biggest of its kind in Asia. CAT in association with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and supported by Royal Norwegian Embassy is organising the festival.

"We have chalked out elaborate programmes covering Dhaka city, all the major public universities and important district towns."