Henrik Ibsen play in Sinhala

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 May 2005, 17:07 GMT]
Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen’s famous play ‘The Master Builder’ is now being staged for the first time ever in Sinhala, while translations into Sinhala and Tamil of three of Ibsen’s most well-known plays, ‘The Master Builder’, ‘Hedda Gabler’ and ‘Pillars of Society’ will be launched this week, the Norwegian Embassy said this week.

“This is the first time that these plays are translated into Sinhala and Tamil,” an Embassy statement said.

The book launch and the theatre performance will take place in Bishop’s College Auditorium, Colombo, on Friday 20 May from 5.15 pm onwards.

The event is organised by the Platform for Alternate Culture and supported by the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo.

“It gives me a great pleasure to see that a play by Henrik Ibsen is being staged in Sri Lanka, and in the Sinhala language,” Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar said.

“The translation of three of Ibsen’s most groundbraking plays and the staging of one of them in Colombo give the people of Sri Lanka an opportunity to get to know Ibsen and his works better and to enhance their understanding of Norwegian culture,” he said.

“Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906) is one of the very greatest names in world literature. He was a central figure in the modern break-through in the intellectual life of Europe, and is considered the father of modern drama. His plays are still highly topical, and continue to be staged in all parts of the world. It is said that Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare,” the Embassy statement said.