NativePeer: A Transcultural Adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (POD)

What does Henrik Ibsen’s famous play, Peer Gynt, look like in contemporary India?

In his thought-provoking and illuminating book NativePeer: A Transcultural Adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Kamaluddin Nilu

demonstrates the relevance of Peer Gynt to contemporary India.

NativePeer contains two parts: an analytical description of the process of transcreation and the resulting play text, which was performed in New Delhi in 2015 under his direction.

Kamaluddin Nilu describes how he recreated and directed his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt for the post-colonial Indian context. His transcultural adaptation situates Peer Gynt in places such as a countryside near the Himalayas and in the cosmopolitan and financial centre (along with its underground activities) of Mumbai. The philosophical themes — power, capitalism, colonialism, nationalism, women’s roles in patriarchal societies, and secularism — addressed by Ibsen in his original text emerge through Nilu’s characters in post-colonial India. Nilu’s transcultural adaptation reveals a deep understanding of the cultural and political contexts of both post-colonial India and Ibsen’s world.

NativePeer represents a new approach in intercultural performance studies and contributes to translation theory. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers within the fields of humanities and social sciences, including Ibsen scholars, and students as well as to theatre practitioners, in particular dramaturgs and theatre directors. Those with an interest in the cultures of Norway and South Asia will also find this book of particular interest.