Although Ibsen’s texts were written many years ago, they were brought to life for the audience in a contemporary setting at this year's Ibsen festival in Nanjing. The jury had the difficult task of finding one winning team among six contributing universities. However, the group from the People’s University of China convinced the jury and the audience on the second day of the festival with their interpretation of the famous Peer Gynt piece. Their performance was outstanding in terms of both acting and directing, and was finally selected by the jury even if the race with the other five performances was a very close one.
The audience also enjoyed contemporary and classic interpretations of “Ghosts” by Tongji University, “Peer Gynt” by Taiwan University of Arts, “The Lady from the Sea” by Shandong University and “The Destruction of Borkman” by Xi’an International Studies University. Nanjing Agricultural University contributed with a very interesting piece based on two female characters from two Ibsen plays, and two female characters from classic Chinese plays, making their performance “Women Flowers” a unique experience.
The jury consisted of: Wu Xiaojiang, Director of China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, Inger Buresund, Norwegian director and the founder of Ibsen International and He Chengzhou, Professor and Director of Chinese-Nordic Cultural Centre and also President of the International Ibsen Committee. Professor He has invested a lot of time and effort in the International Ibsen Festival for University Students. He was proud and happy to see the great skills and joy expressed by the students on stage, the directors and the playwrights during the festival.