Ibsen under the open sky

A scene from the play

He idolises her and places her in his household with nothing to do but dream. She is idle and helpless. The two daughters of the family detest their stepmother and always make her feel like a stranger in the family. Ellida is prone to strange whims like perpetual bathing though she finds no satisfaction in that. She had a seafaring fiancé. Before their final parting he had given her a ring and taken another from her finger, slipped the two into a keychain and flung them into the waves, saying that they had wed themselves with the sea. He had written to her many times although she herself saw the relationship as broken.

When her fiancé returns, Ellida tells her husband that she must go away with him. She insists that she must make a decision of her own and from that time her childish whims vanish. She then regards the visitor as an old friend and no more, and sends him on his way.

Ashish Khondokar, the director of the play, says, "This play is to commemorate the playwright Henrik Ibsen's death anniversary. This environmental version brings the production near to nature, with the lake and open sky. The Dhanmondi setting has been turned into a European house near the sea dating back to a century. The plot deals with a father of two grown daughters, trying to adjust with his new, young, second wife. The play deals with a woman's rights in the domestic environment. A personal love is turned into a humane love that encompasses more people in the end. I felt satisfied doing the play."

Talking to the cast, Roshan Shimu, who was the elder daughter in the play says, "The setting is so different in an environmental theatre and makes acting easier. I've performed before in environmental theatre like Chandrabindu, Dateline Jaggernath Hall but this huge setting was different. Shumon Gohu says, "I've done more environmental plays like Bou Der Patshala. This type of theatre takes you close to nature and that is one of its greatest pleasures." Shumi, who enacted the role of the other daughter Hilda, says, "I cannot possibly put into words how much I've enjoyed myself. As a student of the Dhaka University Theatre Department, I've had some taste of acting." Manob Sarkar says he was Lyngstrand, one of the secondary characters in the play. "Though I was addressing hundreds in the audience, yet I was speaking in a normal voice. I didn't, for a moment feel that I was acting, and this gave me tremendous pleasure."

The Bangla translation of the play was done by Anisur Rahman.