The audience applauds and slowly moves out of the Rimal Natak Ghar at Gurukul, Purano Baneshwar. [break]
Outside, it’s getting dusky and it looks like the usual signing off at Gurukul. But something’s different. Nisha Pokharel, who plays Nora in this Nepali version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, is not out of her role just yet.
She sits still, eyes moistened as if in despair and disbelief. The original play of Ibsen doesn’t exactly mention what state she is in, nor does this adaptation. The audience is left to ponder upon what happens next and fill the void with their own imagination.
However, the play at Gurukul especially the after show performance brings something else to the attention. A white placard placed above Nora catches the eye, “Tapai le Nora lai natak bahira katai dekhnu bhayeko chha?” (Have you seen Nora somewhere outside the play?).
May be you have, fluttering around along with her husband and children, pretending it’s all a jolly world and trying to maintain a harmonious home at the cost of her freedom and self-respect?
The concluding parts of the play have our Nora soberly dressed in white, a change from her vibrant costumes before. The audience can see her transforming from a juvenile character to a mature independent woman.
As the play unfolds, the audience realizes the chirpy Nora who seems to be helpless in almost everything is quite capable of doing things herself. She pretends to need help from her husband as that fulfills his desire of being the authoritative man of the house. She’s being played like a doll but she sacrifices her self-interests and plays along.
The placard incites the audience to think of all the wives, the mothers and women of the society playing along and dancing to the tunes of the norms of the society. The ones who revolt and stop pretending often become the outcastes.
As Nisha prepares for the play in the green room, you can almost see the chirpy Nora in her. She also comments that she sees herself in the character and many women will also be able to relate to her role. “When the play was shown in Denmark, old ladies would come to hug and console me while I sat outside the theatre with the placard,” she recalls.
Ibsen’s play created a sensation when it was first published as it criticized marriage norms and the ending where Nora leaves her husband and children was considered too feminist. But the same play was also of a great help for the women’s movement.
‘Putali ko Ghar’ which completed its 200th show yesterday supports the uprising for women’s independence. But it still doesn’t accept complete annihilation of marital norms for the sake of self discovery. So, unlike the famous door slam in the original play, it leaves the door open for the possibility of reestablishment of marital harmony.
Theatre, poetry, literature or any form of art has always served two paradoxical purposes: it has provided us an escape from the reality and also brought us closer to it. When you leave the Gurukul premises after the notable performance pondering upon the Nora of the play and the Noras outside of it, you know the play achieves both the effects.
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