The Master Builder play in Chandigarh Ibsen theatre Festival

CHANDIGARH :The first ever Chandigarh Ibsen theatre Festival concluded with the staging of the play The Master Builder, Directed by B. Jayashree at Tagore theatre today.The Event organised by the Department of Cultural Affairs offered a slice of english theatre to the elite city audience and Administration’s endeavour found the response and appreciation. The renowned thespian and nominated member of Parliament B. Jayashree presented an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen play The Master Builder,structuring on the Kannada folk theatre tradition to relate to the North Indian Audience.
The Characters in the play include :-Halvard Solness master builder, Aline Solness, his wife, Doctor Herdal, physician, Knut Brovik, formerly an architect, now in Solness' employment, Ragnar Brovik, Knut Brovik's son, a draftsman, Kaia Fosli, a book-keeper, Hilda Wangel,
The Master Builder is a tale of a fear conquering the powerful. Halvard Solness, the master builder, came to be the most powerful builder by strange occurrences that he happened to wish for, but never acted upon. These facts haunt him and are driving him insane. His wife's childhood home burned down, which allowed him to build magnificent structures. She was deeply hurt when she lost her past and their marriage has suffered since then. Two men work for Solness, a father and son. The father he learned from and stole business.
The son he taught and is ready to steal some business of his own. He has learned the craft and trade. Solness is trying to keep his business away from the youth. Solness refuses to lose his position, even if it is the dying father's wish to see his son succeed in life. Out of the past comes a young woman to Solness. She claims to have been kissed by him. He apparently also agreed to build her a castle and run away with her. It is for the audience to figure out if she's telling the truth. But Solness believes her. She tells of a time he defied his own fears and climbed to the top of a tower he built. After he has lost his power to the son, the youth, she manages to convince him to return to those dizzying heights. Tragedy ensues, and Solness falls to his death.
B. Jayashree is the complete theatre person who has given her felicity with acting, music and dane. B. Jayashree was born in the year 1950. She was born in Bangalore and was the granddaughter of the legendary Gubbi Veeranna. B. Jayashree debuted as a child in his company before going on to study at the National School of Drama. After graduation in 1970, and acting under such directors as Alkazi and Karanth, she started directing her own group, Spandana, in Bangalore. It made a name across India with Lakshapati Rajana kathe i.e. `Raja Lakshapati`s Story` in 1986. This was a production resplendent with folk energy and vibrant music. She also directed Chandrasekhar Kambar`s Karimayi in 1987. This was on ritualistic worship of the goddess by that name, in the same style. About the Play
Balura Gudikara (The Master Builder)
It had been decided that this play would be directed by B. Jayashree, the well known director of Kannada theatre. Therefore it was inevitable that this play of Ibsen had to have elements of professional theatre as well as the folk elements in its adopted version. We chose the Veera Ghaase folk format. In Veera Ghaase , we have ‘Veerabhadra’s who dance holding sword in their hands. These people are followers of lord Shiva. It is said in folklore that when Daksha humiliated Lord Shiva, the Veerabhadras made their incarnation on this earth and killed him. We decided that it would be better to use these Veerbhadras directly and characterize Ibsen’s Master builder through them.
Ibsen’s master builder is a wordy play. Here clashes and explosions appear through words only. There is an experiment of unveiling the history and character of the characters through words. Apart from this, Ibsen’s plays demand realistic theatre. This is difficult in contemporary Kannada theatre. Therefore it was inevitable to stylize Ibsen’s play while adapting it to Kannada. For this reason we had to convert some of the details appearing through word to action. To overcome the limitation of time and location constraints we decided to take the help of the Veeraghaase. This group indicates the progress of the scenes and takes the story forward.
After this it was decided to use only one character to act as counter voice of Master builder as well as Veerabhadras and therefore thought of using the character ‘Hilda Wangel’ in the original play as the hero’s shadow and questioning mentailty. Since we were using the Veeraghaase form, it was impossible to make the play contemporary. We therefore we took Ibsen’s play to the 14th century.
During that time many Kings of Karnataka had built temples . The hero of this play, is one such ‘gudikara’ (temple builder). If the atrocities committed by the gudikara are introduced in the first scene, the character ‘Thara’ (Hilda wangle) which appears in the subsequent scenes, directly causes the Gudikara’s death by removing his Ego and inspiring him to climb the tower by himself. This way it was decided to use Thara to counteract the plays Hero as well as the Veerabhadras.
In order to adapt the play I had to first translate the original play entirely, as this play had not been translated previously into Kannada. Therefore a literal translation was prepared first. After that I had to decide on the format we wanted to create.
Ibsen’s master builder is a wordy play. Here clashes and explosions appear through words only. There is an experiment of unveiling the history and character of the characters through words. Apart from this, Ibsen’s plays demand realistic theatre. This is difficult in contemporary Kannada theatre. Therefore it was inevitable to stylize Ibsen’s play while adapting it to Kannada. For this reason we had to convert some of the details appearing through word to action. To overcome the limitation of time and location constraints we decided to take the help of the Veeraghaase. This group indicates the progress of the scenes and takes the story forward. Since we were using the Veeraghaase form, it was impossible to make the play contemporary. We therefore we took Ibsen’s play to the 14th century.
My main intention is to create more visuals to reach the common audience, even though Ibsen’s master builder is a wordy play. When I direct a play I visualize every character and its depth. Being an actress myself I enact the character in my mind first and try to take the best from my artists. While working on the script itself I visualize the sequences to convey its meaning to the audience in the best way possible. The centre character of the play is Gudikara (Master Builder) himself, whose ego is the set of un co-ordinated instinctual trend which plays the critical and moralising role,who is terrified of losing his power or place to the younger generation,hence has a conflict within himself. This is the main reason I took the folk form Veeragase, which is a martial art form. In puranas Veerabhadra is sent to destroy Dakshabrahma who is the personification of ego, hence I felt Veeragase is the apt form to bring out the theme of the play.Ibsen’s attitude towards truth, illusion and imagination is very complex, but they are always present in his characters. While ‘Indianizing’ such complexities, I as the director have to be very cautious. Here I have tried to bring out the struggle of character for a higher truth and the ability to envision a life beyond ordinary. During this process, we took the play into the 12th century. It was a period art, architecture; primarily the temple architecture, was at its peak in south India. Hence, it was complexly challenging to do justice to Ibsen’s characters, which he had created with such great intensity and detailing.
Keeping of each character’s tradition, morality and reputation intact, and applying it to the present time is a big task. For instance Solness( Honna) represents ego, Hilda (Saakshi) represents conscience of every character.Though Ibsen has created complex female character; with a local backround and situation I have to expose the limitations of both men and women with their selfishness, ego, cruelty and also sacrifice.
Music is an integral part of Indian culture. Though I underwent a cultural shock while connecting Ibsen’s thoughts to nativity music helped me in bridging the gap. Also, through music it was easier to portray the magical resonance of objects and spaces that are symbolic in Ibsen’s play. The nativity, the aggression of Veerabhadras and the director’s vision, are conveyed effectively through music in ‘Balura Gudikara’