This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passing away of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) and the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs will commemorate 2006 as the "Ibsen year" all over the world.

 

The Norwegian Embassy in Beijing will present the Ibsen year in China. A series of events, including dramas, concerts and exhibitions will be held to celebrate the works of the great Norwegian writer.

 

"While Ibsen's dramas were written over 100 years ago, his topics are still relevant today," said Tor Chr. Hildan, the Norwegian ambassador to China.

 

Many people in China are familiar with Ibesen plays such as A Doll's House.

 

"Ibsen has deep influence over the early Chinese modern drama works as well as Chinese dramatists' knowledge of the function of drama," said Wang Xiaoying, deputy president of the National Theatre Company, who has both played the Ibsen character Peer Gynt and directed Ibsen's play Ghosts. "Even the Chinese word for modern drama huaju, came into being at a Chinese dramatists' seminar in commemoration of Ibsen in 1928."

 

However, Wang pointed out that Ibsen's works staged in China were mostly his social plays, and Chinese dramatists have paid less attention to his later symbolic works.

 

Fortunately this will be remedied in June with the performance of The Master Builder by Lin Zhaohua drama studio in Beijing.

 

Lin will also collaborate with Norwegian director Jon Tombre to put on Jesper Halle's Nora's Children in April. The play explores Ibsen's most famous piece A Doll's House from the children's point of view. This production was first staged in Oslo in January 2005, and Lin will now bring it to the Chinese audience.

 

The Ibsen year in China will present a wide range of activities, many of them collaborations between Chinese and Norwegian artists.

 

A concert of songs by Grieg based on Ibsen's poems, as well as works by Mozart, Sjostakovitsj, J. Wieniawski and Plagge will be held in Beijing on March 20 and in Shanghai on March 25. In May the Ibsen Year will feature a special Ibsen concert in Beijing by Norway's most famous musical group Secret Garden, Ibsen's classic play An Enemy of the People staged by Nanjing University, and the Ibsen Week at Fudan University in Shanghai.

 

In spring and fall this year, the Opera School of Shanghai Theatre Academy will stage Peer Gynt in the style of Peking Opera. In September, the National Theatre Company will host a drama festival titled "Eternal Ibsen" in Beijing. Famous theatre companies from all over the world will be invited.

 

The program of Ibsen Year in China will also include dance drama The Hunt for Nora jointly by Norwegian and Chinese performers, a female artists' exhibition dedicated to Ibsen's female characters, and an international seminar on Ibsen.

 

(China Daily March 2, 2006)