“My play begins where Ibsen’s Peer Gynt ends,” says Deepan Sivaraman, director of the 19th-century play’s eponymous adaptation, written by Henrik Ibsen. Deepan’s retelling of the fantasy cautionary tale about a young peasant who travels the world, exploiting everyone who crosses his path, is set to be staged at the Alexandrinsky Theatre Festival in Russia, making it the first Indian play to do so.
Deepan Sivaraman, director of Peer Gynt
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Oxygen Theatre Company from Thrissur had premiered Deepan’s Peer Gynt in 2011 at the Delhi Ibsen Festival, organised by the Norwegian embassy and several other organisations. The late Malayalam actor Anil Nedumangad played Peer in the production and it was staged at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK), Bharat Ranga Mahotsav, and National Theatre Festival. The company presented it in an arena-like venue, seating the audience around the stage.
The play belongs to a school of thought called social realism, a depiction that holds a mirror to society. “Peer Gynt, among Ibsen’s other works like A Doll’s House, Master Builder, and Enemy of the People, marked the beginning of modernism in Norway,” says Deepan.
“In 2023, we reintroduced Peer Gynt. Two things changed. One, a few members in the cast had to be replaced, and two, we introduced some conceptual changes from the original play,” says Deepan.
In the original play, Peer, a selfish and arrogant peasant, travels the world. In the process he cheats his mother, lover, and friends. to return as an old man. When he returns, as an old man, he realises the futility of his travels and wishes he had lived a more meaningful life. In his journey, he discovers God, who arrives as a character called the Button Moulder, and the devil, explains Deepan. Button Moulder decides to melt him and turn him into a button for his actions, but he is saved.
Stills from Peer Gynt directed by Deepan Sivaraman and performed by Oxygen Theatre Company
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However, Deepan’s version begins with an old Peer waiting in front of a mortuary stacked with dead bodies. He realises that he is going to hell once he dies, and asks the attendant at the mortuary, who is God, to give him one more chance. “Peer says that it is not his fault, as he didn’t have any guidance,” says Deepan. Peer runs away in the hope of making amends. The devil, who sits in the crowd, challenges God’s decision, letting such a man go scot-free — an instance of how the play exhibits features of modern theatre, with a character emerging from the crowd.
In the end, Peer loses his sanity and ends up in a mental hospital. He is judged by an old woman wearing a wedding dress who calls him ‘a failed man’ broken beyond repair, says Deepan, who hints that it can also be interpreted as parts of Peer’s inner thoughts.
Adapting a classic
The adaptation remains relevant in contemporary society. For instance, the devil appears as Peer’s supervisor when he works as a carpenter. He tells Peer that if he wants to do good for people, he should go to America, where there are many philanthropists. The devil tells him he can sell weapons there and “help people in Central Asia”, says Deepan, who further narrates how a rich Peer returns to India as an industrialist, but is stripped of everything he earned, when he is robbed and a journalist reveals this news to the world.
Khasakkinte Ithihasam, another one of Deepan’s renowned plays, premiered in 2015 and has been evolving since.
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“In the play, COVID-19 plays a huge role. For our generation, this is our only encounter with a pandemic. It affected everyone, irrespective of their economic standing. People started thinking about right and wrong, and I read Peer Gynt in such a context,” adds Deepan.
Stills from Peer Gynt directed by Deepan Sivaraman and performed by Oxygen Theatre Company
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“When you read a classical text in the 21st century, it should converse with the present-day situation. The realities and conflicts may have changed, but the play itself becomes different when you recontextualise it. I look for the possibility to make a text colloquial to blend it with a present-day situation,” says Deepan.
Theatre vs Cinema
The director, who also plays Button Moulder in the play, says the changes in the play were a necessity, in order to utilise the maximum potential of theatre. “Theatre is not a popular form anymore. It needs to reach out to people and offer them experiences that cinema or another medium cannot offer. It can stimulate multiple senses. For instance, a play like Khasakinte Ithihasam appeals to your sense of smell, sound and sight. But cinema is just trying to be 3D and 4D, in an attempt to be immersive.”
The Oxygen Theatre Company staged the new version of the play for the first time in Shanghai, China, in 2023 and has performed it three times since.
Deepan says, “I consider writing a play to be like cooking. You taste it multiple times and refine it to attain a sense of completion. I have been working on this text since 2010, and the pandemic contributed to it, with elements about mortuary and hospital truly transforming the text.”
Khasakkinte Ithihasam, another one of Deepan’s renowned plays, premiered in 2015 and has been evolving since — another advantage theatre has over movies and novels, lending it the ability to evolve over time.
“The people who acted in it have also matured. Some of them started in their 20s and are now in their 40s. The characters have also evolved with them. After over a decade, the story truly has some life,” says Deepan.
The play has been invited to the Fajr International Theater Festival in Tehran, Iran, next year and to Germany as well.
Peer Gynt will be staged at the Alexandrinsky Theatre Festival on September 2 and 3.
Published – August 29, 2025 11:00 am IST
