Democratisation Process in Interculturalism: Staging Ibsen within a Folk Theatrical form in Bangladesh

Abstract

In this article, I will focus on the transformation process taking place within what I earlier have called complex forms of cultural encountering within theatre, that is, when a text from one culture is blended with a theatrical form from another culture. In the example used, the encounter is between Ibsen’s text, Ghosts (Gengangere) and a folk theatrical form of Bangladesh called Kushan Gan. Kushan Gan is a genre of popular performance in which episodes from the Ramayana are mostly enacted. It is performed during religious festivals of various deities including Kali, Bhagavati (Durga), Laksmi, Jagaddhatri and Saraswati. It is usually performed in the temple precinct or in the outer courtyard of homesteads. Kushan Gan is further described in Syed Jamil Ahmed’s Achinpakhi Infinity: Indigenous Theatre of Bengal (2000, 61–62). It is important to note that the production was made by traditional artists for a local audience. I will argue that the encountering process can be analysed by making use of the three-step approach of separation, replacement and incorporation. Through this process, the traditionally religious content of the particular folk form is replaced by a secular and reinterpreted Ibsen text which is presented through the artistic expression typical for this art form. In this way, Ibsen’s text becomes purely localised and clearly also political.