Norway begins its 'Year of Ibsen'

Norwegians are preparing to celebrate their best known playwright, Henrik Ibsen, with a gala celebration in Oslo Saturday to mark the centennial of his death.

Ibsen, author of A Doll's House and Hedda Gabbler, will be honoured around the world in 2006 with conferences and stagings of his work.

The psychological realism he brought to the stage is considered a breakthrough in modern theatre. Ibsen has been popular in some periods for his portrayal of women struggling with their independence, but he is also interpreted as a great humanist who sought liberation for both sexes.

Norway has declared 2006 The Year of Ibsen. It has set up websites in18 languages, listing Ibsen events in 91 countries.

Many of the stars who brought his work to life have been invited to an opening gala at Oslo City Hall on Saturday. Norwegian Liv Ullmann, German Angela Winkler, France's Isabelle Huppert and Glenda Jackson and Claire Bloom of Britain are among the actresses being honoured with the Ibsen Centennial Award at the gala.

The interest in his work is unabated, said Bentein Baardson, the head of Ibsen 2006. "Not only are Henrik Ibsen plays performed on 130 stages worldwide each week, but his characters and drama also inspire artists and generate new works,"he said.

Workshops on Ibsen's drama begin Friday in Sri Lanka and India, and productions of his work open in Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany.

London's National Theatre plans a performance of Pillars of the Community and the Logos Theatre Company will stage Ghosts.

At least three Canadian theatre companies plan Ibsen events. The National Arts Centre in Ottawa will present When We Dead Awaken, beginning Jan. 30. Montreal's Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre will stage A Doll House in February. Director Peter Hinton has amended the title of Ibsen's play to one he feels more accurately translates the Norwegian.

The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake plans an Extreme Ibsen weekend, which includes a performance of Rosmersholm, plus readings and discussions.

The Minneapolis area of Minnesota, which has a large Scandinavian population, also plans numerous Ibsen events throughout the year.

Norway's state bank has issued a special 20-kroner coin featuring a bearded Ibsen. Events will also look at Ibsen on the film screen, on radio and on television.

The playwright was born March 20, 1828 in the southern Norway town of Skien. His father, a local merchant, went bankrupt in 1835, forcing the family to move to a farm near the town of Gjerpen.

At age 16, Ibsen went to Grimstad as an apprentice to a pharmacist. In early 1849, he wrote his first play, Catline, publishing it under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. The response was very negative.

In 1850, he moved to Oslo, then called Kristiania, where the first play under his own name, The Burial Mound, premiered in September.

In 1852,Ibsen moved to Bergen and began directing productions. His plays began to have a following and he was able to support himself with his writing. All but one of his 26 plays were presented in his lifetime.

Ibsen was a painter as well as a poet and dramatist. The Ibsen museum in Oslohas created an online database of his artwork.

Ibsen's plays are often critical of society, exposing hypocrisy and manipulation, as well as addressing the role of men and women.

Hisother plays include Brand, Peer Gynt, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, and The Master Builder.

He spent 27 years abroad, including in Germany and Italy, before returning to Oslo in 1891. He wrote his last play, When We Dead Awaken, in 1899, before suffering a stroke in 1900. Ibsen died at age 78 in 1906.