Multitude of Peer Gynts, an inter-Asia theater project helmed by Yogyakarta-based Teater Garasi, has been awarded a prestigious Ibsen Scholarship
span>Multitude of Peer Gynts, an inter-Asia theater project helmed by Yogyakarta-based Teater Garasi, has been awarded a prestigious Ibsen Scholarship.
The project, which involves performing artists from Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, is based on Henrik Ibsen’s 19th-century play Peer Gynt.
First established in 2008 by the Norwegian government, the Ibsen Scholarships are awarded biennially to innovative projects in the performing arts with subjects concerning the works of Henrik Ibsen, one of the most distinguished playwrights in European tradition.
Multitude of Peer Gynts was led by Teater Garasi troupe director Yudi Ahmad Tajudin and dramaturg Ugoran Prasad.
The first part of the project, Peer Gynts di Larantuka, was staged in July at the Larantuka city park in East Nusa Tenggara.
Teater Garasi infused local culture into the play and reimagined the titular character as a man who lives in a global village but is terrified of rapid change.
“The jury finds great promise in the project’s cross-cultural approach and the ambitions of the artists, looking at the legendary global vagabond of Ibsen, Peer Gynt, as a framework for stories on mobility, border-crossing, drifting and homelessness,” the jury stated as quoted by the Ibsen Awards website.
Multitude of Peer Gynts is one of the five projects that won scholarships out of the 149 applications from 60 countries. The four other winners are from China, France, India and Lebanon. The total amount of the scholarship program is 2 million krona (US$218,462).
Teater Garasi is the first Indonesian recipient of an Ibsen Scholarship.
Ugoran and executive producer Rama Thaharani will accept the award on Oct. 23 at the Teater Ibsen in Skien, Norway, and will subsequently present their project at the Ibsen Awards Festival forum.
During a recent media conference, Yudi said Multitude of Peer Gynts was borne out of discussions he had with friends on fear and anxiety arising from an increasingly connected world.
Yudi added that the project could also be used to read into contemporary Asian issues and present them in a play.
“It is one of our efforts as Indonesian artists to read the world. Very often we are the ones being read; Indonesian artists and the art scene, Indonesian culture and political realities. This time around, it’s us that will read the world and enter the dialogue.”
The project involves Sri Lankan dancer Venuri Perera, interdisciplinary artist Nguyen Manh Hung from Vietnam and three artists from Japan — choreographer-performer Takao Kawaguchi, actress Micari Fukui and composer Yasuhiro Morinaga.
They work together with Teater Garasi actors Gunawan Maryanto, Arsita Iswardhani and MN Qomarudin, as well as lighting director Ignatius Sugiarto.
Research for Multitude of Peer Gynts began in 2018, with visits to and research done in Japan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia. The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) provided Teater Garasi with travel grants for a visit to Colombo in 2018, and a workshop in Tokyo earlier in August.
The Teater Garasi team will stage the final part of the play, Peer Gynts-Asylum’s Dreams at the Shizuoka Arts Theater in Japan from Nov. 5 to 19.
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