The Visual Transformation of A Metaphoric Existentiality

Henrik Ibsen’s last play When We Dead Awaken, critics evaluate, is profoundly ‘poetic and metaphoric.’ Written at the fag end of his life, in 1899, and published in December the same year, only seven years before his death in May 1906, the play is ‘considered deeply personal, almost [a] confessional work.’ Confessionalism is an old practice in the literary world. William Shakespeare manifested his future plans in his last play The Tempest through Prospero, “But this rough magic [writing plays]/I here abjure.” Prospero’s pledge to quash his staff and destroy his book are often speculated as Shakespeare’s farewell to writing. Many fiction writers too wrote autobiographical novels reflecting their own experience and frustrations of life too—instant example being Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence.

Transforming metaphoric existentiality constructed on a figuratively elevated language—for it is held that Henrik Ibsen was tremendously influenced by ‘proto-existential themes in his final play, When We Dead Awaken, exploring existential despair, authenticity, and the failure of life’ making it almost his autobiographical play—is undoubtedly a difficult task, and that is what Nowrin Sazzad, the director of the play, with her drama-troupe Actomania tried to do on the national stage of Shilpakala Academy when they premiered Bangla version of it on January 27. It happens to be Actomania’s third production.

Translating poetry is considered to be the most difficult task, mostly because it is an emotional composition strewn with abstractions and extremely metaphoric expressions, like the way Wordsworth said, “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” It is doubly difficult when we consider that every human, particularly every poet, quintessentially suffers from a syndrome of linguistic relativity, as per Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that emanates from the influence of their mother-tongue wherein they create their very own world of abstraction which is simultaneously culture and semiotic bound.

 Thus, the translator of When We Dead Awaken, Shahidul Mamun, in a tete-a-tete prior to the premiere show confessed that he rendered the play first back in 2009 and was not content with the outcome and had to reconstruct it once more which resulted into the present version. And Shahidul Mamun did a good job at least in producing a translated play that bears the quality of speakability if not communicability—two essentials of a play—because communicability depends on the pragmatic interaction between the audience and the performers, which in turn requires perfection in performance.

Nowrin Sazzad, I must say, should be credited adequately for her authentic aesthetic endeavours. She is a very hardworking theater worker in the sense that she holds a quality track-record in directing plays and has so far shown her directorial exclusiveness in almost all her previous stage works. In When We Dead Awaken she additionally performed the role of Irena, A Strange Lady (that is how Ibsen marks her as one of the dramatis personae), one of the lead female characters—which is a mystic abstraction, and definitely not a ‘fully realized and realistic human character.’ In fact, Irena personifies the hypothetical concept of playwright’s (or artist’s) muse, just like Jibonanado’s Bonolota Sen, or Annabel Lee or Helen of Edgar Allan Poe, ‘having surrendered her life, soul, and body to inspire Arnold Rubek’s masterpiece, Resurrection Day.’ Nowrin played both roles—as director of the play and as Irena—admirably well.

As the director, among many other admirabilities, she showed her innovativeness by using a combination of abstract statues as well as statue-like live performers making it both interactive and imaginative. There is no denying the fact that the play is a combination of images of stone and solidification—an organic process over a long period that turns into a stony substance. Nowrin made them visual. As for her acting, I wish, it could perhaps be parallel with her directorial role.       

                      
One of Irena’s utterances in the play was, “we find that we have never lived”, and I feel that is substantially the height of the entire play’s semantic level, in other words an ‘awakening’ of the play itself (almost like Zombie nature), and that, I personally feel, was essentially needed to be foregrounded in the translated version. In fact, the rhetorical meaning of this dialogue goes deep into interpreting man’s desires to live a life that they can never live, and that is the message Ibsen wished to give in two of his earlier major verse plays too, Brand and The Master Builder. 

The flyer of the play suggests that the cast has alternating roles, meaning two actors would alternately perform the same role in different shows at their convenience. In the premiere show the cast happened to be Kamruzzaman Tapu, Marshia Shawon, Fakir Biplob, Sagar Barua, and Nowrin Sazzad. They played the roles of Rubek, Maia, Wolf, Inspector, and Irena respectively. Along with them there was a band of chorus played by Marjuk Al Hasan, Sanvi Mir Chowdhury, Razon Arif, Dibakar Mandal Jitu, Sharif Yusuf, and Avijit Shaha Rudra. As for Kamruzzaman and Marshia, in the roles of Rubek and Maia in the opening scene, both of them seemed to be influenced by a bit of stereotyped confined acting, but with time they opened up properly and remarkably. Contrastively, on the other hand, Fakri Biplob performed his role somewhat overconfidently, though he could by more facile. Same goes with Sagar Barua, but the roles of Chorus were well-planned and well-handled, for which Nowrin deserves due acknowledgement. Sets, properties, choreography, and light were meaningfully and aptly applied, especially addition of some remarkable abstract choreographic compositions with their rhythm and shape advanced the befitting inner message of the play. However, the use of music and sound was a bit erratic in nature.     

Overall, the production is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the Ibsen plays in Bangladesh. Henrik Ibsen is one of three most popular translated playwrights in Bangladesh, the other two being William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. Though Shakespeare remains supreme in total dimensions, Henrik Ibsen has always maintained a remarkably steady, influential and popular presence on our stage. Given this time of aesthetic barrenness, Shahidul Mamun’s translation of When We Dead Awaken, directed by Nowrin Sazzad is one of the key advancements in our performing arts domain which will, hopefully, rise to perfection with time.       


Abdus Selim, a noted translator
and educationist, teaches
English language and literature at Central Women’s University, Dhaka.