Kathmandu:

It’s not often that dignitaries of the stature of Prime Minister attend a theatre festival. Exception of course being Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who not only inaugurated the Ibsen Theatre Festival at Gurukul on November 1, but also pledged his heartfelt support to the nation’s theatre artistes.

The Ibsen festival is being held to mark the death centennial of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who is considered the father of modern drama.

Recollecting two plays Mukunda Indira and Munamadan that the PM had seen during his

early days, Koirala eulogised the power of plays and encouraged the artistes to use their medium of art to spread the message of peace.

Koirala also launched different books including Abhi Subedi’s Nepali theatre as I see it, Putaliko Ghar translated by Sunil Pokharel, Nepal ma Rangamanch by Shiva Rijal and Ibsen: Beyond time and space.

Ambassador of India to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee and Norwegian ambassador Tore Toreng were among the other dignitaries present to mark the inauguration ceremony.

The first day of the Ibsen festival showcased an adaptation of Ibsen’s play Master Builder. Minutes into the play and it had captured the attention of the audience. With a deft execution of dialogues, which was expertly translated from the original play, director Sunil Pokharel indeed proved his metier as an able artiste. And though the props were not au fait, the performances left no space for hamming and hawing and had the audience almost captivated for the one-and-half hours that the play lasted.

The festival will see performances by many theatre groups from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Norway.

Jan Shatru (An enemy of the people) will be performed in Hindi by the theatre group Shailnat from India. The timings are 12 noon and 5:00 pm.