INTERVIEW

ADoll’s House, a play by Henrik Ibsen that was published in 1879, sent a massive wave of excitement across literary Europe. On 10 October, the play’s latest performance in Delhi, with Ira Dubey playing the lead character Nora Helmer, caused just as much excitement, anticipation and surprise in the audiences at the Stein Auditorium of the India Habitat Center. The modest production started out with just two actors on the stage. Joy Sengupta played Nora’s husband Torvald Helmer, in addition to playing the rest of the characters that seem to trap Nora in a corner. The play deals with questions of morality, honesty, desire, fantasy and ideals, revealing in its course the true natures of its characters, as scene after scene brings out a new side to them. The other thing you might realise watching it are the quite evident parallels one can draw between this play’s characters and situations with Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhure, revived for today’s audiences by Dubey’s mother Lillete Dubey.

Ira, too, feels that though the plays are divided far apart in distance and time, there are strong parallels. She talks to Guardian 20 about Ibsen’s play, the inception of its characters, and the creative ground it shares with Aadhe Adhure.

Q. How many times have you performed this play and how long have you spent in rehearsals? A.

The first performance was in Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre on 6 October and this is our second performance. We have been rehearsing and preparing the play for about 45 days. We started by practicing at our director, Pushan Kripalani’s house and then as the production caught speed we got investors in form of Ila Arun’s production house.

Q. Nora Helmer represents the women of 19th

Europe. How much do you think her character resonates with you, and with other contemporary women? A.

It resonates a lot because even though a lot has changed since the 1870s, men and women are still not equal. The very first scene itself makes it clear that there is a power dynamic in Nora and Torvald’s marriage, one that we can still see in a lot of marriages all around. It was this power dynamic that made Nora hide certain sides of her character from her husband which ultimately becomes the tragedy of her life. This is still very much prevalent and we all expose or hide ourselves according to people and relationships. It might be healthy sometimes but at other times it grows toxic such as what we see in the play. And why do people hide themselves or show just one side? Well, sometimes that is the only choice they are left with.

Q. Can Nora be called a younger version of Savitri from Aadhe Adhure? A.

In many ways, yes. There are certain similarities even

“Even though a lot has changed since the 1870s, [when Ibsen’s play first came out], men and women are still not equal. The play’s very first scene makes it clear that there is a power dynamic in Nora and Torvald’s marriage, one that we can still see in a lot of marriages all around.”