Ibsen and the Multicultural Norway: Investigating Processes and Barriers to Multiculturalism in the Norwegian Theatre

The Norwegian government declared 2008 to be Mangfoldsåret or The Year of Cultural Diversity, in hopes of creating a more inclusive and multicultural arts scene. This study investigates the year through the lens of institutional theatres in Oslo, with focus on Ibsen performance. Both of these fields possessed the potential to make meaningful political statement in Mangfoldsåret, and demonstrate that the government and Norwegian arts scene were truly committed to raising the level of cultural diversity in the arts: theatre is the most heavily subsidized arts sector, with the institutional theatres enjoying the majority of these subsidies, and Ibsen is one of Norway's largest national cultural icons. How would these national institutions--both the institutional theatres and the cultural institution of Ibsen--respond to the government's demands? The structures behind the Norwegian theatre system are also analyzed to gain better understanding of the reasons as to why culturally-diverse influences and actors face such difficulty in penetrating the system, and to assess whether such problems can truly be solved with a cultural diversity year.