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Ibsen's The Master Builder in Sinhala: a rediscovery

by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra

An organisation named 'Platform For Alternate Culture' in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka presented in Colombo, the Sinhala production of Henrik Ibsen's (1828-1906) The Master Builder (1892) at the Bishop's College auditorium on May 20.

The two main events that occurred on this day are the launching of Sinhala and Tamil translations of the printed texts of three plays by Ibsen commonly titled as 'Yugatunaka Ibsen' (Nugegoda 2005) meaning three stages of Ibsen, enveloping three major plays (The Master Builder, Hedda Gabler and Pillers of Society translated into Sinhala by Ariyawansa Ranaweera, and the Tamil texts translated by P. Muttiah and M.M. Haleem Deen) and the production of 'The Master Builder' in Sinhala by Piyal Kariyawasam.

Personally being an Ibsenite myself, I felt exceptionally enthusiastic to be a participant of the function. On harking back as far as mid sixties when I adapted and produced Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in Sinhala, I see what the late Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra had to say for the Sinhala press.

To build a better Sinhala theatrical climate, the influence of Ibsen is a must and more and more plays should come out belonging to that tradition, Prof. Sarachchandra pointed out.

Then in the Seventies when I translated and produced 'The public enemy' (1882) (Jana Hatura) with the Kelaniya University students attached to the Department of Mass Communication, Ashley Halpe then Professor of English, Peradeniya, writing for the English press at the outset put it was a variant from the existing pattern of realism as seen in the local theatre and should be encouraged and commended for the effort on our part as university dons.

Populist tradition

Though our effort was flouted by the local theatre mentors of the populist tradition of the State, spearheaded even by some political ideologists in the then State Drama Panel, bearing the populist cult as against the more favourable classicist cult, it was an exercise in the making of good theatre, which we observe as revived today at a moment of downfall of theatre at large, devoid of any methodical output of good theatrical works needed or striving to be revived today as against the stagnant theatrical culture which needs a grave change, if it is to be developed.

So all these background details go as auxiliary factors for the historic occurrence of the subject of the anticipated influence of Ibsen on Sinhala theatre.

Piyal Kariyawasam's previous experience in writing, directing and producing his own plays as well as Harold Pinter's plays. Presumably trained in the theatre craft, Kariyawasam is visualized from the spectator's view, a modernistic director utilizing more realism than the fantasy elements that lay embedded in the play text of Ibsen, which it would seem, is difficult to tackle with amateur local players whom we see without much of a training at theatre school level of acting.

We however, also see how he overcomes with great difficulty the barriers that hinder him from the theatrical craft of bringing Ibsen on to the local stage. In this direction I feel that Piyal had spent a lot of time devoted to the creative elements of actual presentation without making the play dull and lull for the local spectator.

For me, there was not a single moment of dullness, though the lines of Ibsen are mostly packed with subtle psychological nuances well translated allowing a rich classical flavour which we rarely observe and experience on the local stage.

In this three-act play, my primary observation falls on the first two acts - more realistic than the third act, which is more a fantasy (not in the least meant to be a fairy tale), where the sensitive nature of the master builder, Halvard Solness (played by Sampath Jayaweera) as a mentally deranged person, who needs a drastic change from the first two acts coming on to the third act by way of a fantasy where the theatrical technique utilized, ought to have been more the work of a choreographer cum director through whom the actor's talent should have been highlighted than it is presented in the present context of analysis.

But on the other hand the realism of the insinuating factors that go into the suicidal effect of Solness in the character portrayal of Hilde Wangel (brilliantly played by a new comer Anasuya Subasinghe) the pulse of the central experience is observable as sharp and poignant. As observed by one translator of Ibsen's The Master Builder, Arvid Paulson, (last plays of Henrik Ibsen, A bantam Classic, 1962).

Substantial reality

This elusive play, which possesses substantial reality yet seems to exist in a world personal to its author, has been difficult to stage, and it has seemed coldly abstract despite the intensity of feeling in the characters.

At the same time, its amplitude, the noble depth of its design, can be reduced to banality by commonplace realistic representation, which seem extremely incredible after the first act.

Piyal faces this problem as a challenge in his production, which if given more theatrical creative thought ought to prove a better end product. Ibsen's cryptic tragedy (of Solness) of the fall of the man from the tower of his pride becomes the symbolic theme of the play, which could be perceived from several layers of meaning where contemporary politics, learning, business, and competition are all entangled into one entity.

The production of The Master Builder, this way, raises several salient theatrical points as well as socio-political factors for our contemporary living giving vent to more 'modernistic attitudes and behavioural patterns of humans ' observed over the years.

Eric Bentley observes in his 'The playwright as Thinker': "One should turn freshly to the plays of Ibsen's last period to rediscover a tortured, introverted, clever, repellent ,oblique and subtle genius."

I felt that the identification of Ibsen with his character of Solness was visible only up to a point and left underdeveloped from the actor's contribution to the text. This exemplifies that the actor's role in Ibsen text is far more important than one visualizes.

Ibsen made his contribution to the theatre by developing new creative techniques that are found in various narrative patterns, while discarding old ones, and by daring to put on stage themes and problems that had never been presented earlier.

The legacy of Henrik Ibsen the literary artist as well as the theatre man. He is dealing convincingly and logically via his characters and situations an array of eternal and universal themes transcending the geographical barriers, the themes such as the conflict between the individual and the society, between the reality and the illusion, between the true and the false idealism. We should follow this path in our writing for the stage.

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Formative years of a revolutionary

Viplavavadiyakuge Hadagasma - Sinhala translation of Philip Gunawardena - The making of a Revolutionary, by Charles Wesley Ervin, Translator: W. T. A. Leslie Fernando, Publishers: S. Godage and Bros., Maradana, Colombo 10, Price: Rs. 100

The fact that an American author, Charles Wesley Ervin has presented a research work on Philip Gunawardena, the "father of socialism" in Sri Lanka reveals that some Sri Lankans who are being relegated to the past are well admired by foreigners.

The book "Philip Gunawardena - The Making of a Revolutionary" written by Charles Wesley Ervin after extensive research was released in 2001. W. T. A. Leslie Fernando, former High Court Judge the well-known writer in both English and in Sinhala has now translated the revised 2nd edition of it into Sinhala titled "Viplavavadiyekuge Hadagasma".

Hector Abhayawardena, an authority on the history the Leftist movement in Sri Lanka in his introduction to the Sinhala translation writes "Philip was a colossus in the revolutionary politics in Sri Lanka and does not require introduction to readers.

But the early years of his youth have not been widely known mostly because throughout life, Philip refused to talk about himself. As a result the youthful years he spent in the USA and Great Britain have gone almost entirely unrecorded."

Charles Wesley Ervin, a young American scholar who did some research on the Lanka Samasamaja Party and its involvement in the activities of the Bolshevik Leninist Party in India was astonished to see the part played by Philip during the period.

The dossier, the British Secret Police had maintained on Philip was a treasure to him. He has written this book making use of information found in the police files as well as facts he had collected on Philip on the USA and elsewhere. Now we have the Sinhala version of this magnificent work translated into simple language by W. T. A. Leslie Fernando.

This book discloses how Philip, who went to the USA for his higher studies, became a Marxist while studying at the Wisconsin University in Medison. He had been in the forefront in various working class struggles and Marxist activities with his contemporaries in the USA like Jayaprakash Narayan, K. Ramiah, John Jesudasan Cornelius and others who later became great political leaders and intellectuals in India.

Charles Wesley Ervin in this Work asserts that Philip came to England from America not only with a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Columbia but also with a mind full of revolutionary thinking.

In England Philip worked with S. Saklatwala, R. P. Dutt and Seyed Sahijad Saheer in the activities of the Indian League. He became a member of the British Communist Party and organised harbour and dock workers.

Philip was the mentor of Sri Lankan students in England at the time like Dr. N. M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R de Silva, Leslie Gunawardena and Vernon Gunasekera. He formed a league of Sri Lankan students with them.

In this book how Philip gradually became a Trotskyite in England is vividly portrayed. This aspect of the career of Philip Gunawardena is very significant because it was the Trotskyite group formed by Philip in the UK that formed the Lanka Samasamaja Party in Sri Lanka. The LSSP had a great impact on the socialist struggles and the progress of people in our country.

The life of Philip in the USA and the UK had the germ for the struggle for emancipation of the down-trodden in Sri Lanka. In that sense it is the first stage of the present society in our country. We should be grateful to Charles Wesley Ervin a scholar from New York in the USA for presenting the early years of the modern chapter in Sri Lanka.

The book is printed in glossy paper with a handsome photograph of Philip Gunawardena showing his youthful exuberance in the front cover page. In a future edition some printing errors found in the book should be rectified.

Piyadasa Pitigala

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