Ariane Mnouchkine wins Int'l Ibsen Award

Ahmed Ahsanuzzaman writes from Oslo OSLO May 28 (bdnews24.com)—Founder of the avant garde Paris stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil (Theatre of the Sun), Ariane Mnouchkine won the prestigious International Ibsen Award for 2009. The announcement came Tuesday morning at a crowded press conference organised by the Award Committee in Oslo's Ibsen Museum, the mansion where Norway's world renowned playwright Henrik Ibsen breathed his last in 1906. Often labelled as 'the father of modern drama', Ibsen along with Shakespeare is frequently performed all over the world. The International Ibsen Award, established by the Norwegian government in 2007, amounts to 2.5 million Norwegian kroner (about 300,000 euro or 500,000 US dollars), and was given to Peter Brook, the director of the much talked about Mahabharata, for the first time in 2008. The aim of the award is to honour an individual, organisation or institution within the arts and culture for exceptional achievements defined within the spirit of Ibsen's work which simultaneously stimulates and invites "continued critical debates on crucial societal and existentialist topics". Mnouchkine has produced plays by Shakespeare, the Ancient Greek tragedians Euripides and Aeschylus as well as work by the contemporary French feminist writer and playwright Helene Cixous. All these productions have appropriated and synthesised many Eastern and Western theatre styles and performers are encouraged to adopt any kind of technique that might serve the needs of their character. With members of over twenty nationalities Mnouchkine's theatre continues to explore and develop a shared store of theatrical images, interweaving Japanese, Indian theatrical traditions like Kabuki and Kathakali, Chinese theatre traditions, Italian commedia dell'arte and Classical Greek theatre. Mnouchkine encourages her company members and audiences to think of the stage as a sacred space. Productions always include the ritual of performers putting their makeup and costumes on in front of the audience and the impressive and usually extremely detailed staging created inside the Cartoucherie is rebuilt from one show to another. Like Brecht, Mnouchkine sees the actor as primarily a storyteller and performances by her company are therefore highly physical and often demand athletic and acrobatic skills. Actors are also required to represent and convey strong emotions and images by recognising what Mnouchkine calls 'the state'. Basic states can change according to circumstances, but every actor is encouraged to locate and depict a central feeling that dominates the physical and emotional life of a character before exploring such changes. The Award Committee's reasons for choosing Mnouchkine include: Everyone who has seen one of Ariane Mnouchkine's productions at the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris leaves with the feeling of having been part of a tale of enchantment. A tale that is larger than life but at the same time reveals life. A fantastic journey that throws fresh light on history and contemporary society, that enriches thought and feeling and in dramatic language inspires an apparently paradoxical faith in the future. [...] Mnouchkine's theatre realised many of the dreams of the radical 1960s generation: her work combined social criticism with artistic revolution. 1789 not only deals with an event that has profoundly influenced the French people's idea of their historical significance, it also involves the audience as a creative force in a way that set a new standard for European theatre. While some of the audience sat on bleachers, others mixed freely with the actors throughout the theatre space and moved about between the platforms where the different episodes took place. Everything is shown from several different angles – social criticism, history, mummery, a ritual celebration of the theatre's age-old ability to break with everyday patterns and, through its collective force, generate new knowledge. Chaired by famous Norwegian actress, writer and director Liv Ullmann, the international Ibsen award committee comprises a host of distinguished theatre personalities and academics from across the world including Bangladesh's leading director Kamaluddin Nilu. Mnouchkine will receive the award in September at a grand ceremony in Norway's National Theatre in Oslo. Born in 1939 in Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, Mnouchkine is the daughter of Russian film producer Alexandre Mnouchkine. She holds a Chair of Artistic Creation at Collège de France and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Oxford. The report is based on information provided in a press release, the award website and articles on Mnouchkine. The writer is a professor of English literature. bdnews24.com/aa/1340h.