Saturday, December 13, 2008

My vedeo interview ; "Theatre, his way of Life"


See my vedeo interview in webindia123.com

http://video.webindia123.com/interviews/theatre/chandradas/index.htm

I speak on my theatre, my plays, my background, evolution as a theatre perosn,  my concepts and attitudes to theatre in this 53 minute interview with Parvathi at webindia123.
pls see this and give me your responses.
Thank you Parvathi and webindia123.com

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Karnnabharam at Rangayana Mysore


KARNNABHARAM (The anguish of Karnna), The Malayalam adaptation of the Sanskrit Classic Performed by Lokadharmi Kochi Kerala is invited to Mysore. The play is written by Mahakavi Bhasa, translated into Malayalam by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, Music direction by Bijibal and the Design & Direction is done by Chandradasan.

·        This play has won the prestigious awards for Best play, best stage design & best costume design from Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards 2008.

·        Also nominated for best Actor, best Ensemble and best Choreography in the festival

Karnnabharam will be performed at Vanaranga, the open theatre at Rangayana Mysore as part of the National theatre festival Bahuroopi on 28th December 2008 evening.

Earlier Karnnabharam had been performed in Gulburga and Bangaluru in Karnataka and also in the major cities all over India that includes Kolkota (Bengal), Hyderabad, Vijayanagaram (Andhra Pradesh), Jagdalpur (Chatisgad), Cuttack (Orissa), Patna (Bihar), New Delhi, and Kurukshethra (Hariyana). 

This play is performed widely in major theatre festivals all over India including Bharath Rang Mahotsav New Delhi 2006.

This is the 316th shows of the play.

The artists traveling to perform the play are Sudheer Babu, VR Selvaraj, Aarjith Babu, Sijin Sukumar, Madan Kolavil, Sebastian K Abraham, Jyothi Madan, Jolly Antony, Bhanuvajanan, Shyju T Mamsa, Vysakh Lal, Shan Ijaas, Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam, Sanosh Palluruthy, Aadarsh Madhav, Jebin Jesmes, Gireesh Menon and Chandradasan

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Madhavi at Soorya Festival









The Malayalam version of the Hindi play Madhavi presented by the campus theatre of St. Alberts College with the technical collaboration of Lokadharmi will be performed at Soorya Festival at Co-Bank Auditorium Thiruvanathapuram on the 18th of October 2008, at 7.30 pm. The play is translated into Malayalam by PR Viswambharan, Designed & Directed by Chandradasan. The Music is by Bijibal, Art by Sumesh Chittooran, Lighting by Gireesh Menon, Costumes by Muthumani Somasaundaran and the Make Up by Pradeep Chittoor. The cast of the play include Anitha Joseph, Dijin K Denny, Jithin stephen, Vysakh Lal K, Neethu Mariam Koshy, S Krishnaveni, Gayathri VG, Libin Thomas George V, Shaiju T Hamsa, Pradeep Chittoor, Babu Antony KB, Mebin Pappachan, Vidya PS, Krishnakumar V, Rahul Singh PR, Jyothish Thomas, Dilin Dinesan, Nisha, Aswini, and Minu. All of them are acting in a play for the first time in their life. A quite new experience!

This play is done by the Campus Theatre and the Department of Hindi, St. Alberts College in an attempt to link the academic activities with a creative pursuit, madhavi being the text book for the degree students in their Hindi language class.

Late Bhishma Sahni was a writer of the masses and not of the classes. His characters and stories are based on triumphs and traumas of a common man. The content, the theme, the treatment of the issues in his plays are socially relevant and progressive even if they have historical or mythological base.

In 'Madhavi' Sahni gives an ideological spin to a story drawn from the Mahabharata, while an empathy with the downtrodden is evident.


The storyteller in Madhavi recounts an ancient tale from the Mahabharata. Munikumar Galav must fulfill his promise to his guru Vishwamitra which is his dharma (duty). Yayati the king-turned-ashramite gives away his daughter Madhavi to Galav in an act of generosity. And in between these fixed notions of male pride and honor, lives Madhavi, treated as a mere pawn in the world of masculine action. Blessed with the ability to regain her youth and virginity at will, and the promise that she will mother great kings, she is a valuable asset to the men who use and control her. Till she walks out on them all, denying them the final satisfaction of controlling her will.


Madhavi is not a myth, she is a reality. Madhavi has not been vanquished by history, she still lives either in the self-imposed glory of her sacrifice or the heart-rending solitude of her abandonment.

Madhavi stands amidst the keen stares of men who weigh upon Madhavi's body - her statistics, skin, shapes. She is treated as a prolific son-generating machine and Galav markets her professionally and stoically. He is insensitive to her; moving from harem to harem, leaving a son behind each time.

Yayati gives away his daughter as if she is an inanimate object. Queens who bear daughters are sidelined. By the very nature of the myth, the characters turn wooden. The three kings are just anonymous characters pining for male heirs. Galav, Vishwamitra and Yayati are wooden. But unlike as in the myth, Madhavi is not just a male-bearing womb. She is well portrayed and humanized.

The performance style of the play is direct and transparent which is able to highlight the ideological positions of the various characters and the revolt springing in Madhavi. She offers herself to be traded for herself not out of her love and sympathy for Galav but also as a mark of protest and revenge to the social system that makes women a tool or an inanimate object. The set is simple and suggestive; the acting pattern is subtle and truthful, devoid of artificial melodramatic exuberance. The music is perceived to be the metaphor that represents the male-female conflict in the play. Finally Madhavi merges with the group of female narrators/singers who narrates the saga of Madhavi with silent tears and pain.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Thrust on playwriting-The need of the day *

Play-writing in Indian languages is in an all time low and in ambiguity now. The number of new plays written, published and performed is very few. The quality of the plays in representing Indian reality, its suitability to address the demands of the newer trends in theatre, and the creative space it gives to the actor director and other technicians, are derisory. In the content it looks so simplified immature and insufficient to represent the chore of the problem it seem to address, and is not capable in effectively holding the attention of the reader or the spectator– both emotionally and intellectually.

Regarding the form, it is insufficient to succumb to a motivating idiom on stage that provides an artistic space for the design a new production out of it. The playwright often seems to have been ignorant about the potentials/new possibilities/ current trends in theatre. He confines himself in some form of expression and blocks other possibilities of the stage. The director, actor, and other technicians have emerged as creative persons with the same importance as the writer; the modern theatre is a synthesis of the faculties of all these creative energies. Modern theatre has developed into a unique and discrete space where the dissolution of the creative faculties of different individuals merge together to form a single art work. It does not mean that the authority of all these artists is to be offended or diluted for the sake of the other. The work and creative heights of all these participating artists has to pitch itself at a symphony of resonances and the work of art reverberates in a unique amalgamation of ideas and imaginative temperaments to result in a true ensemble.

Modern theatre needs a collaborative coexistence of the playwright, director and actor. Each of the three is reluctant or ignorant about the faculties, creative identities and potentials of the other. At present we see that the plays performed lacks in any of these three faculties. Usually the director rules over the other two, or at times the actor, and at times the playwright predominates and the outcome lacks in its total communicative and artistic expression. It is high time that the three major creative entities of theatre mutually join in the creative pursuit more effectively and the immediate thrust has to be on the first phase of the artistic endeavor - the writing of the play.

The text of the new play
The new Indian play shall have the following features;
· Reflect the Indian realities, the social issues, problems, agonies, anxieties and also the delights of living in this period and country. It shall speak about the life of the time and the place.
· In perspective it has to reflect the Indian situation, but it can utilise the regional or desi concerns/situation to articulate about the macro India. Being rooted in Indian context the text can be universal.
· The text has dual existence, one as a material for the reader- the work of literature; and at the same time it has to transform into a performance. It has to furnish the dual being of drama, as a written text and at the same time yield into a performance text.
· That means the text has to withhold the autonomy of the writer and at the same time leave space for the director, actor and other creative technicians to artistically interpret and generate a new form, meaning and life to the written material.
· The text has to yield to the performance demands of the contemporary theatre devices. The best text shall be so open and flexible so that it can be interpreted and recreated in varied ranges of forms, styles and modes of expression. Classics from all traditions, (Indian, Greek, Shakespeare etc…) can be true models in this respect.
· The play can be written in any form of expression that has been developed all around the world over the times. It can assort to any of the genres of expression or create a new genre in playwriting. It can be narrative, expressionistic, absurd, or count on the fragmentary disposition of Images. But personally I think that theatre is at its best when it is narrative and this is reinforced again and again in the current trends of theatre all around the world.
· While being in a form, structure or style of expression, it shall be fluid enough so that other expansions/explorations on the text are allowed and possible.
· Most of the times the playwright seems to struggle in defining a performance style and technical mode of theatrical execution when writing his text. It is the job and faculty of the director and other artists to solve this problem in performance and the playwright has to focus his attention in the narrative structuring and the literary, poetic and political exposition of the content, story, idea, or idiom of expression. He can of course suggest/hint a performance mode in his writing, but it can be better achieved out of the collaboration with theatre and associated artists.
· It can be said the reverse too—it is the content that decides the form, and hence a collaborative coexistence may help the performing artists to reach at a form and technology best suited for the text.
· Most of the plays written are still modeled on the proscenium stage, its dynamics and aesthetics. The western perspective of theatre as a box-office commodity - a product that has to be consumed by the spectator - and related aesthetics decides the writing process. Such a theatre focus on the ‘show’ and the duality and detachment of the spectator from the action. Other options and modes for theatre bind the audience as a participant in the performance, emotionally intellectually and physically. Such theatre has to break open the confines and scaffold of the proscenium arch; writing a play in such a milieu needs a focus shift in attitude towards the positioning, narrative structure, craft and the mode of expression. Such attempts may give a new phase in the playwriting scenario and can be best achieved by collaboration with the playwright and the director.
· An Indian playwright has to acquire knowledge about the traditional and folk modes of narratives of the land and the people, its connotation to the aesthetics, and their social political and cultural implications. He can use and adapt any genre/mode he likes when writing a new play, but shall not be ignorant to the tradition of the land and the people.

A workshop to address these problems ---A series of collaborative workshops on playwriting may equip the contemporary playwright to come up with new plays that can be valid as a piece of literature as well as a material for adapting to the stage effectively. The workshop modality shall be,-
· Anyone who would like to a write a play can be included in the workshop. But preference will be given to the ones who had already written plays; and to writers who had already established as poets, fiction writers or in other literary genres.
· The writers would be asked to write the first draft of a play on any theme or style before they report to the workshop.
· The playwright should be grouped with a director who has the practical experience on the art of ‘transcribing’ the written text to the language of performance. The director shall try to understand the viewpoints and concepts of the playwright and at the same time work with him to mould the text to suit the demands of the stage.
· Both of them can use the service of a group of actors and try to work out a scene or a part of the play so as to understand the performance viability and style.
· The script has to be rewritten and modified in the workshop in accordance with the discussion with the director and the interaction with the actors.
· The rewritten text is to be read in the whole workshop so that further discussion with other writers and directors may change the form of the text further.
· In all the discussions the autonomy of the author is to be accepted and the playwright has to acknowledge the creative entity of the director and the actors in interpreting his text into a performance.
· The performance reputed productions, (live and projection of video) and discussion on the chemistry of transformation of the text to the performance can be an important activity in the workshop.
· The whole workshop is to be done at a peaceful serene and remote place where distractions of the participants are less, and creative atmosphere is persisted.
· Sangeeth Natak academy has to help publishing the good texts that is created in the workshop. And also help to produced on stage and a festival of such productions have to be organised as the next stage of the workshop.


[*] Presented to, Sangeeth Natak Academy New Delhi through Kavalam Narayana Panikker the vice chairman.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Life on the Strings – Doctor Faustus by Ljubljana Puppet Theatre from Slovenia



Life was hanging on the strings. Mephistopheles was dancing around. And Faustus was uncertain about his action, life and deeds. He was a puppet in the hands of the destiny, emoting, interacting, trying to cope up with, struggling to get away, and arguing with himself and Mephistopheles, who had made him sign a treaty that has been taken away by a flying spirit the moment he took his hands off.


It was a puppet play. The place was the upstairs of Oxford Books in Kolkota. And the Ljubljana puppet theatre from Slovenia was performing their adaptation of Doctor Faustus. The event was part of the Ganakrishti International theatre festival 2008. And I was there to present my play Karnnabharam in the fest.

Doctor Faustus written by Marlowe was adapted brilliantly by Igor Cvetko and the director Jelina Sitar, to suit the puppet show. The performance space was barely 1feet x 1.5 feet. The puppets were 4 inches size. Cast in metal and tied on strings the puppeteers gave life to these inanimate objects to narrate the saga of human fate and tragedy into an interesting, animated funny tale of about one hour duration. The Puppets and stage design is done by Milan Klemenčič

The puppets of Faustus, his servant Wagner, Mephistopheles (in many forms), the evil spirits and assistants of Mephistopheles, spirits, animals, Boatman Caron of the underworld, his master Pluto who is the lord of the underworld, Helen of Troy (offering to Faustus from Mephistopheles) and other devilish creatures were the regular expected characters. There was Kasperle - a jester and regular character from the European puppetry world, is an added character in the plot. Kasperle arrives as the house of the professor Faustus, and offers himself to be his servant, who can clean, roam around the master and of course eat and drink, but for a salary. He cannot enter into a treatise since he does not have a soul (I am just a puppet without a soul to pledge)! The puppet Kasperle is in an interesting counterpoint to Faustus and his surrender to Mephistopheles. As a parallel to Faustus- Mephistopheles couple there is the couple of Kasperle and Asmedeus, one of the devilish spirits. In the final scene when Faustus is to be taken to the hell, Kasperle has also to depart the duty of the servant and go away. But he has to be given the salary for two months that is pending and Faustus is unable to pay it. Instead Faustus offers to exchange his costlier cloth for with Kasperle, which Kasperle denies. He says that if it is done there is a chance that Mephistopheles may mistake him for Faustus and will be taken to the hell. Instead he says that Faustus may say hallo to his aunt who is staying in room no 13 of the hell. The introduction of Kasperle made a very interesting parallel to the Faust story and at the same time added fun and humour to the plot.



Doctor Faustus is undoubrtedly one of the most prominent characters in Eureopean literary history. The motif of the story about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in his desire for absolute knowledge of the world can be tracked down to the European Middle Ages. Its origin however can be found in the legend of Theophilus brought to Europe form Asia Minor in the 11th century, and written down as a play in 13th century France.

Different German variants followed. Faustus as the title hero fist appears in Christopher Marlowe`s drama form the 16th century. Doctor Faust became one of the most popular plays performed by travelling puppet theatre companies in 17th and 18th century Germany, spreading as part of puppeteers` standard repertory throughout Central Europe.
The great German poet Goethe saw a play and transformed it into his famous epic. Nevertheless, Fustus has spent the most of his treatre life on the puppet theatre stage.
The Slovenian Doctor Faustus puppet production of 1938 in Ljubljana saw the creative pinnacle of Slovenian puppetry pioneer, painter Milan Klemenčič (1875 – 1957) who used the Leipzig text of the play, adapted and produced it at his Little Marionette Theatre.

The puppet play as is presented now uses puppets on strings that is moved and manipulated by the puppeteers, and also sets, painted backdrops, music, sound and lighting. The set looked realistic and at times expressionistic (when it represented non realistic spaces). The detailing of the sets and action are amazing: for example it has the many windows lighted by different colored glasses being closed in one by one, as midnight falls!

It was interesting and enthralling to watch the way the puppets moved, danced, flied and filled the tiny performance area. The tiny puppets filled the whole volume of the ‘theatre’ with immense energy, rhythm, and subtlety. They danced, climbed on tables, chairs and the furniture, and were trying to climb on a horse and taken to the skies by the horse, sat on chairs etc. There were immense life in these inanimate objects that was transmitted into them by the puppeteer; the puppets become an extension of the body of the puppeteer. The puppeteer has to breathe his soul and energy, into the puppets while he manipulates them. We can also say that it is the nature and the character of the puppet decides the puppeteer and his work, not the other way round. It is the puppet that demands to the puppeteer to work in a specific way since it has a nature, character, and life of its own. The mutuality of the puppet and puppeteer gives sense to a puppet play.

The play in five acts ended in doctor Faustus being taken ‘to hell with heaven and earth’. The tiny inanimate objects and the microcosm it created were effectively chronicling the pit of man in earth, and his voyage for hell and heaven within and around himself.

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

KARNNABHARAM Travels to Kolkota



KARNABHARAM (The anguish of Karna), The Malayalam adaptation of the Sanskrit Classic Performed by Lokadharmi Kochi Kerala travels to Kolkota. The play is written by Mahakavi Bhasa, translated into Malayalam by Kavalam Narayana Panikker, Music direction by Bijibal and the Design & Direction is done by Chandradasan.
· This play has won the prestigious awards for Best play, best stage design & best costume design from Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards 2008.
· Also nominated for best Actor, best Ensemble and best Choreography in the festival
This play is performed widely in major theatre festivals all over India including Bharath Rang Mahotsav New Delhi 2006. Karnnabharam was performed in the cities of Bangalore, Gulbarga (Karnataka), Hyderabad, Vijayanagaram (Andhra Pradesh), Jagdalpur (Chatisgad), Cuttack (Orissa), Patna (Bihar), New Delhi, Kurukshethra (Hariyana) and now in Kolkota.
The play will be performed in Kolkota As part of Ganakrishti Natya Utsav 2008, organised in collaboration with East Zone Cultural centre Kolkota. The two shows at Kolkota are at– Bharatheeyam Cultural multiplex Kolkota on 21.07.2008 and the second at Rabindrasadan on 22.7.2008.
This is the 312th and 313th shows of the play that has been widely performed all over India.

The artists traveling to perform the play are Sumesh Chittooran, Sudheer Babu C.S, Selvaraj.V.R, Pradeep Chittoor, Madan Kolavil, Jyothi Madan, Sebastian K. Abraham, Santhosh Piravom, Sijin Sukumar, Jolly Antony, Nandan Palluruthy, Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam, Sanosh Palluruthy, Aadarsh Madhav, Subramanian, Jebin Jesmes, Gireesh Menon and Chandradasan


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Saturday, July 5, 2008

In the Moonlight of Love – Soorya Krishnamurthy adapts Premalekhanam (Love letter) by Basheer




Love is a sweet and dreamy experience, quite unique and pure… it transcends human beings into a realm of lighter existence, into the bliss of being among hardships.
When Vaikom Muhammad Basheer writes about love it becomes all the more sweeter and transparent – as sweet as a ‘candy from the skies’. The human experience revolves around the whole scaffold of dreamy nuances of human bondage and at the same time is rooted to the ground reality, the conflicts of being in the ruthless and loveless society with all contradictions. Love becomes a cold stream of moonlight into which his characters can take a dip to forget the hardships and struggles ordeals and survive. He is the Sultan of narration, and the real legendary writer who has created his own language and constructions, an alternate narrative language itself whenever the words fail to express the nuances of relationships and experiences.

Premalekhanam (love letter) written in 1943 is adapted into a play by Soorya Krishnamurthy, into a simple and telling narrative form that makes us soaked into the moonlight of love. Recently many of the stories by Basheer have been adapted to stage by many theatre persons and all were appealing in theatre. There is some magic in the writing of basher that makes the adaptation into a success. This may be because the works of the Sultan of Stories are truthful, clear and unique exposé of human situation. It is neither the craft nor the technique of writing that makes it unique, but the truthful earthy human experience, the link with contemporary concern, and the clarity of vision and expression. Thus it is immaterial whether is expressed as fiction, drama or film in which the expression takes place.

This production also was a soothing experience and at the same make as reflects about the society in which we live in and our own limitations. It makes as dream about the moonlight of pure love that transcends all walls and bondages, the bondages of caste and religion in one level and bondages and limitations of our own existence and self to merge into the transparency of unconditional love.

The director and his crew have taken a simple and transparent design for the play quite true to Basheer and his writing. It was performed in an arena where the audience was sitting on all four sides of the square in which two characters Kesavan Nair and Saramma (enacted skillfully by the couple Amalraj and Lakshmi) were trying to play their mutual love. Kesavan Nair a bank employee (the play is hosted by the Bank Employees Arts Movement in Kochi) and his infinite love to the unemployed Saramma, the daughter of his tenant and her negation of his letters of love and expressions is used not just to engage the audience and marvel them, but also to reflect the conflicts of the present day. The whole interaction seems a gibe or a game of love in which direct expression is negated by the ploy of Saramma, who always postpones saying “tell you tomorrow”. And hence we have to wait till the last minutes of the play where the two lovers really express their love and unite.

The play depended not on any techniques or technology, other than the skill of acting from the cast. The design and approach of the director is quite refreshing in an atmosphere of overt technical gimmicks and overindulgence in gadgets used in contemporary theatre. Krishnamurthy in his previous production Melvilasam (Address) also has avoided any technological usages and depended on his actors and the human emotions of the dramatic situation to create his theatre. It is to be remembered that technique is not alien to him and he was doing a lot of ‘light and sound shows’ of massive formats quite efficiently. But when it came to theatre he left the craft beside, and is working on the basics of human experience and theatre itself.

The set was simple, with minimum essential properties, and minimal use of music and sound. The play started with Basheer’s favorite song ‘Soja Rajakumari…’ that set the atmosphere for the play to take place. The other sound used was the sound of a train to mark the different scenes which finally suggested the train in which the two characters leave for a voyage seeking a new life to a distant place. The light was to make the action visible and to mark the scene changes, and the use of a blue light to represent the night and also the moonlight of love that always is there in the hearts of the lovers became proficient. The blue light was there when the Saramma finally opened her heart to Kesavan Nair and the pair has really expressed their mutual love.

And the thrust of the narration that the director emphasized was on the religious diversity of the two lovers. The possibility of a life together between Saramma who is a Christian and Kesavan Nair who is a Hindu and how the couple is going to name their child was the chore of the play. This story that was written in the 1940’s and the resolution that they will grow the child without any religion, and name him as ‘Aakasa-Mittai’ (the candy from the skies) felt more relevant today, where the atmosphere outside is echoing the nonsense of screams, protests and bloodshed about a lesson in the curriculum of the primary school. While watching this production I was taken into the mystic and cooling experience of the moonlight of love; and at the same time was also made to ponder about the viciousness of our society that is retreating in its deliberations, deteriorating sense of humanism, conservative orthodoxy enslaving the progressive liberalism more ferocious and fierce than in the darker ages of history.

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Abhayarthikal (Refugees) by G Sankara Pillai--production journal III



INITIAL EXERCISES TO PREPARE ACTORS.

We started to device exercises for preparing the actors for this play and to reach on specific acting exercises suitable. The participants are almost fresh, who had undergone only the very basic training for acting.

The first set of exercises was based on walking. We worked on the pace and rhythm of walking, and started to investigate how the emotional levels affect the pace and body positions while walking. The breathing, mouth/head position, the look/gaze and its focusing, the trunk position, stooping or relaxing of body segments etc, changes with the emotional state of the body. Finer aspects like pace of breathing, concentration of look, focusing of eyes, the tension on the body parts, opening and closing of body, the weight of the body etc changes with emotional kevels. The actors were asked to identify those changes they feel in the body with a particular emotion and then have to push that affects to maximize the feeling level and sustain it.

This exercise was emerging to be the combination of the internal to the external (the effect of the emotional level on the body as Stanislavski suggested) and then applying it the reverse direction (from the external to internal – to affect the emotional state by advocating affects on the body as Mayerhold suggested). A combination of these two opposite processes proved to be working faster on the new actor.

We are depending more on Stanislavski in the beginning sessions since the play needs a realistic acting approach, but instead of accepting the techniques rigorously and as such, we are adapting and improvising to suit our needs and situation. We are still on the physical aspects of emotions, making the motors of body movements smooth and in control, trying to reach the internal rhythm of movements, and also to change the neutral body into an actor’s body.

Also we had a session on aging and its effect on the motor and make it genuine and again this is indebted to Stanislavsky.

We were trying to involve the backbone into our movements and make it active, and figuring the actor to concentrate on his backbone and breathe while moving. The breath relates to the emotional level and the backbone enables the flexibility and continuity of the movement. The set of exercises can be called ‘emotion and walking’, and we tried to carry and sustain those emotional charges achieved, while we sit or lean on stage.

The exercise sessions continued on to the next few days of work. Mostly the exercises involved walking and slowly we added weight shifting exercises so that the actor could balance his body postures and positions. Also rhythm is worked out into the natural walking movements. We improvised rhythm and body weight shifting to walking exercises so that the movement may lead to a spontaneous choreography. We are aiming on the flexibility of body movements, controlling the gait and speed of the movement so that clarity of gesture and expression is achieved.

We are trying to focus more on to the sense of our own body in the exercises. The exercises involved physical work with an involvement of concentration and then adding rhythm into it.

After a few days of these exercises we could feel that the body of the actor started to respond faster in the improvisations. And it was much spontaneous in caricaturing and creating characters on stage. There is an obvious sign of development.

Slowly we added movements from kalarippayattu the martial arts form that instill fast reflux and higher flexibility in physical actions.

Also we agreed upon the division of the text into 19 units. The 18nth unit is pretty long and while working further it may be divided into subunits.

In the next post I will write about our experience with improvisations of units and the result.

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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Activate Rural Theatre

Indian theatre recently is getting more and more concentrated in urban areas and cities. Earlier theatre in Kerala was more vibrant and flourished in the villages and small towns and it continued to be so till the 1990’s. The village theatre was very rustic, crude and yet meaningful. But now almost all the significant theatre activities are focusing the cities. It is high time that sensible and continuous theatre activity should happen in villages. Strengthening and empowering village theatre will enrich and enhance Indian theatre in its quality, content, form and aesthetically too.
It is a relief to see that there are a few places where villages have started doing workshops, and related activities. Children’s theatre can be a good activity to initiate, but ample care and comprehension is needed in designing and sustaining it.
I visited one such village, Thampakamukku, almost 10 kilometers from Alapuzha town. A few theatre enthusiasts and cultural activists have joined together to initiate some kind of theatre activity since two years. In this midsummer vacation too they organized manchadikoottam - a 20 day workshop with 25 children in the age group 4 to 15. The children played, improvised, danced, acted, wrote and did many activities connected with theatre. They performed the visualization of three poems, one each by Kumaran Asan, Ayyappa Panikkar, and Kavalam Narayana Panikkar. They also performed a play Vachumattam written by Kavalam and directed by T.V.Sambasivan.
It was good to see that the workshop along with theatre and art, attempted to connect the children to the environment and the mindless mayhem exercised on it. Agriculture was also given the same importance along with cultural awareness. This link to environment, trees, lakes, and agriculture will generate a green mind in the young children.
The organizers were Nrupalaya, instituted for Traditional Art theatre that conducts regular shows of traditional performances like Theyyam, Koodiyattam, Kadhakali, and Mudiyettu etc. They had build a stage, and an open theatre that can seat about 300 audiences, a protected hall for rehearsals and make up, and also a library. This group functions on the enthusiasm of few individuals like Aaryadu Vasudevan and Kichu Aaryadu; but the larger society has to shoulder it and see that the activities continue. Proper caring of such rural activities, and providing the needed orientation and support is the responsibility of cultural organizations such as Sangeet Natak academy and other state machineries.
Hope that this place will emerge as a true centre for theatre with good productions, performances, theatre festivals etc and will contribute largely to the theatre of the area and the state. We have great examples like Ninasam that has grown from rural background to nationally acclaimed theatre institutions.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Mazhavillu performs ‘The Girl in the Photograph’- fragmented images of war and its victims


Mazhavillu the children’s theatre wing of Lokadharmi premiered its new play titled ‘The Girl in the Photograph’, written and directed by Shirly Somasundaran.


The girl is Kim Phuc, the little nine year old, running naked down a road, screaming in agony from the jellied gasoline coating her body and burning through skin and muscle down the bone, running through the burning streets of Vietnam.


And the photographer is Nick Ut who won the Pulitzer Prize for capturing the collective conscience of the whole world against the brutality of war, through this single picture, – the one photograph that captured the horrific nature of Vietnam War.


Her village in the Central Highlands of Vietnam was napalmed that day in 1972. It would take many years, and 17 operations to save her life. And when she finally felt well enough to put it behind her, that very photograph would make her a victim, all over again.





This play in Malayalam, enacted by 25 children, narrates the story of agony and survival, pays a floral tribute to the war victims, and sends out a strong message that the prey of war is always the children,- the next generation. The play was also about John Plummer who dropped the bomb and about the trauma and guilt-feel he undergoes.


The end of the play suggests the possibility of sparkling of lights from the stars in the dark sky, a ray of hope when Kim pardons John and they join together to dedicate their life in bringing some illumination in the lives of the war victims, as symbolized by the lit candles, shared by the actors on stage and the audience.



The play in six segments that take place in a pagoda in Vietnam, the mess hall of a military camp in Vietnam, a hospital room, the office room of Plummer, the Class room of Kim, the visiting room of Dr.Lean in USA, is all set in a continuum. All the scenes except the last one take place in Vietnam. The production has tried to represent the locale with suggestive settings, cloths and spreads, and the use of dried bushes indicates the war tone nature.


The cultural characteristics of Vietnam and nature of the backdrop of the story were depicted in a suggestive level, as the priority of the production seemed not on the authenticity or the specificity of the culture, backdrop or the environment; but on the historical facts that were well researched and authentic. At the same time the little fluidity in the depiction of the background, atmosphere, costumes, rituals, properties, music, etc helped to transport the premise into a universally valid experience, beyond time and place of the incident.


The play used the projection of the photograph of Kim which served as the key motif behind, scenes depicting napalm bombing, and a depiction of the famous reply speech of Kim on her selection as the goodwill ambassador of UNESCO. The production is an amalgamation of the facts with fiction and these projections provided the needed link. In the last scene Kim breaks open the screen and comes to John Plummer saying “I am a victim of war, I was a victim of many things, but Life is beautiful”.


The play demanded a lot of emoting and subtlety in acting which the kids did fairly well. They did not drop into the clutches of melodrama, neither into soulless sentimentality, but carried the struggle and feel of the characters inside. Special mention to be made about Aparna as Kim in her war hit days, and Namitha as her mother who excelled with subtlety in performance and carrying the emotional levels quite convincingly and truthfully.




Assosciate director Rema K Nair appended the technical aspects of the play, Music by Aarsha and Aadarsh, Set by Manoosh and Jolly Antony, make-up by Pradeep Chittoor and lighting by me, Chandradasan.


The production was trying to be simple, direct, and matter of fact, devoid of any pretentious stuff and this transparency helped the communication of the basic idea quite successfully.


The performance took place at Changampuzha Park Edapalli, Kochi on 15.05.2008.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Abhayarthikal (Refugees) by G. Sankara Pillai* – Production Journal II


The reading, discussions and analysis of Abhayarthikal continued and this exercise brought new ideas and insights in us. The propositions that came into limelight can be summarized as —


  1. The most interesting aspect or ‘the line’ in the play is that of Janaki when she says ‘there is no much difference between the homeless refugees and the refugees with a home and family. We all are refugees irrespective that we have a home’. This statement can be the super-objective of the play. Every human has the same insecurity as the refugees; if we examine deeper and close enough, the helplessness, insecurity and uncertainty of the refugee will surface almost in everyone.

  2. Thus the most important characters are to be the invisible refugees in the text, and they should be brought forth as visible metaphors in the performance. Also there should be links and threads that connect the refugees and the characters of the play. The validity of the production may depend upon the efficiency with which this connection is made.

  3. There is a socio-political rationale that exemplifies the story. The ideology of the play links it with the general radicalism of the sixties where the potency and structure of the concept of a ‘strong family’ started to disintegrate. Janaki breaks the family and comes out. The encounter between Janaki and her husband in the final sequence is eloquent enough to suggest the falsity of the concept of a smooth and solid family set up. Prabhakaran, the other character wanted to marry a girl and initiate a family life which did not take place and his mental balance is spoiled. The old man spent the whole life to bring up his son and tried his best to create an upright family, but he turned into a stray soul on the death of his son. Thus the dream to establish a family and attempts to live in tune with the establishment is disturbed resulting in expatriate identities and that makes the ‘story’ of the play. The play hints on the breaking up and disintegration of the social structure based on solid families.

  4. There are obvious economic reasons for this social transition. The porter married his daughter to a better alliance due to financial reasons. Appu, the son of the old man has to join the army is eventually killed, is also out of economic compulsions and poverty. The peddler and the leader are also the outcome of the same economic and deplorable social condition. The reason for the refugees to migrate to an alien land may also be the poverty and lack of survival prospective in their birthplace.

  5. There is also a mystical and philosophical component in being a refugee. A refugee is almost a gypsy, a group of people sharing the space, sufferings and possibilities; but not bonded to each other strongly. They may or may not be related as in a conventional family, may be blood- relatives or may be unfamiliar and has come together on the demand of time and state of affairs -- a group of people abandoned and living together with its own laws of ethics and customs. They live in temporary arrangements and are always in a threshold to move and that gives immense freedom to make life lighter for them.

  6. We could observe the same slackening of bonds in present day families too, where migration is the order of the new global situation. It is normal that children migrate to other countries and places far away in marriage, job, business etc and the notion of a single family with grandparents, husband, wife and children living together as a unit is already broken; what remains is the skeleton structure of the edifice. Thus contemporary life has made all of us into refugees irrespective of the status and other amenities, and this play is speaking exactly the same bizarre fact. The revealing of this unpleasant reality may be emotionally shocking and at the same time a purgative action. Thus the play reflects the contemporary society and the possible audience.

  7. This argument is reinforced by the parallels between Nora in Ibsen’s Dolls house and Janaki. Towards the end in both the plays, the wife talks directly into the face of the husband for the first time in her life, and then dare to break out of the marital bondage to ascertain their freedom. In both the plays the husbands are shocked and plead their wives to return to the warmth and safety of the home, which the woman denies and walks out.

  8. There is an influence of Ibsen in the narrative structure of the writing also. It is the mode of reflective introspection between the characters that reveal the past story. The play opens somewhere near the climax, and the reader comes to know about the past incidents slowly from references and hints in the dialogues as the play progresses.

  9. The characters in the play are depicted as typical caricatures. But to communicate the depth of the situation and its gravity, the actor has to carry the characters beyond caricaturing and that is going to be the challenge for the actor.

  10. The setting and atmosphere is more important than the characters in communicating the feel and meaning of the play. The rural railway station, the cement benches, the tree with flowers, the ground with a spread of fallen flowers, the lamp post, the darkness surrounding, the moonlight filtering, possibility of a fence of cactus etc enhance the significance to the whole enactment.

  11. The play should break away from the proscenium structure. One option is that the group of refugees can occupy the main acting area and the characters can be amidst the audience and can act from there. An open area under a tree with minimum or no walls in the set (that are on the tumble) may be the best space for the enactment). Breaking of the walls is the working idea behind this performance.

  12. The place is almost dark except the moonlight. The characters have the tendency to merge into the darkness than the pool of light.
    The discussion and analysis was productive with the students/participants coming with valid observations and comments. Hope these may influence and reflect in the production. We will do the breaking up of the text into units and then endeavor the discussion further, along with improvisation which is another mode to discuss, relate and reinvent. Also we have to invent exercises that can prepare the acting pattern for this play.


    *G. Sankara Pillai is the author many plays that include Bharathavakyam, Amalanmar, Karutha Daivathe Thedi, Poojamuri, Bheema Ghatolgacham Bommayattom, Snehadoothan, Nidhiyum Neethiyum, Bendi, Anayum Kurudanmarum, Rekshapurushan, Moodhevi Theyyam, Thirumpi Vanthan Thampi, Avatharanam Bhranthalayam, Thavalam, Sabarmathi Dooreyanu, Oru Kootam Urumbukal, Kasmiyude Cherippu, Subhantham, Aasthana Viddikal, Kizhavanum Kazhuthayum, Deepam Deepam, Moonnu Pandithanmaarum Parethanaya Simhavum, Kazhukanmar etc…

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Salute Vijay Tendulkar, the Iconoclastic Playwright who Modernized Indian theatre.



One more master playwright passes away….
Salutations to Vijay Tendulkar (06 January, 1928– 19 May, 2008)
The author of Gidhade (The Vultures) (1961), Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court is in Session) (1967), Ghasiram Kotwal (1972), Sakharam Binder (1972), Kamala (1981), Kanyadaan (1963), and many more plays including plays for children like Bāle Miltāt, (1960) and Pātlāchyā Poriche Lagin (Marriage of a Village Mayor's Daughter) (1965), etc…
He wrote about the wretched lives of the lower middle class and was part of the new awakening in the theatre of 1960’s along with Mohan Rakesh, Girish Karnad, and Badal Sircar; and gave a new idiom in the style, language and substance of contemporary Indian theatre.
Tendulkar was part of the Quit India movement and India’s freedom struggle, but cannot negotiate with the optimism of the Nehruvian age; he wrote stark plays about middle class agony, ambitions, fake morality, anarchy and paradoxes within …
His plays were sagas of conflicts between individuals and society in general, which took his characters through endless and complex emotional states which had no reverence to the so called morality and value system of the society…
He was exploring the themes of violence in its various forms: domestic, sexual, communal, and political.
Kamala is an indictment of the success-oriented male society in which women are the springboard for the accomplishments of men.
Silence! The Court is in Session combines social criticism with the tragedy of an individual (that to a female actor) victimized by society pf her colleagues in theatre.


Sakharam Binder is about the domination of the male gender over the female. The main character, professes not to believe in "outdated" social codes and conventional marriage. He regularly gives ‘shelter’ to abandoned wives, and uses them for his sexual delights without considering the emotional and moral implications of his victims. Paradoxically, some of the women also falls into his arguments and simultaneously want to be liberated from their enslavement.
Ghashiram Kotwal dealt with political violence which unveils the decadent Peshwa kingdom and its political machinations, and analyses how the pursuit of power results in moral decay. This play recounts the power game played out in terms of caste ascendancy in politics. The structure of narration is different from other Tendulkar plays which are mostly written the realistic mode and under obvious influence from the western drama. Ghashiram is written as a musical drama, and the performance of it directed by Jabbar Patel, for Theatre Academy Pune combined traditional Marathi folk forms with contemporary theater techniques to create a new paradigm of expression, turned out to be one of the milestones that decided the direction of the later Indian theatre. Ghashiram Kotwal' was staged over 6,000 times in its original and adapted versions, making it one of the longest running plays in Indian theatre history
Vijay Tendulkar wrote his best plays in the 60’s and 70’s when the Marathi theatre was on the uphill road, shaking of the melodrama and the tear busters to create something more genuine and meaningful in theatre. This was also the period when Marathi theatre was perfecting its craft of acting and technique to give high aesthetic standards in theatre. His plays were produced many enthused directors and actors including Sriram Lagoo, Vijaya Mehta, Damu Kenkre, Arvind Deshpande, Bhakti Barwe, Satich Alekar, Satyadeo Dube, Mohan Agashe, Sulabha Deshpande, Naseeruddin Shah, Amol Palekar, Om Puri, and Smita Patil, among others..
Tendulkar wrote his plays mostly based on real experiences. He says in an interview. “I personally don’t bother about people who haven’t seen life. They close their eyes at the sight of suffering as if it doesn’t exist. The fact is that life is dark and cruel; it’s just that you don’t care for the truth. You don’t want to see it because it might make you uncomfortable. If escapism is your way of living then you will fail to see the truth. I have not written about hypothetical pain or created an imaginary world of sorrow. I am from a middle class family and I have seen the brutal ways of life by keeping my eyes open. My work has come from within me, as an outcome of my observation of the world in which I live. If they want to entertain and make merry, fine go ahead, but I can’t do it, I have to speak the truth.”
He was so active and responding about social and political situations and concerned with environmental problems and the like but did not want to make a sound out of it and just to attract the media. He did not make a noise where he was not intended to. He told his immediate friends that he wanted his death is to be mourned and made a big function.
"I don't want my death to be mourned," Vijay Tendulkar told his friend Ashok Kulkarni a few days ago from his hospital bed.
"He said he wished a quiet passage," Kulkarni recalled his conversation with an ailing Tendulkar in a Pune hospital. "He didn't want the last rites to be performed. And he said 'No' to condolence meetings." "My innings is over," Tendulkar told Kulkarni and his friends. He didn't even want the Press to know about his death. "He insisted that we inform the Press about his death only after the funeral," Kulkarni said. He made sure his last days were normal.
Salutations to the maestro playwright, for the dark and realistic expression about the unpleasant truths and brutality of the middleclass, the snobbery, inherent violence and manipulation of power, that runs through various strata of the social structure.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Kalivesham – Overt and Loud

This is a response to the play Kalivesham written by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, directed by Narippatta Raju and performed by Natyasastra kadampazhipuram, Palakkadu.
The text by Kavalam is about a Kadhakali performer who is to perform the evil character of Kali in Nalacharitham Kadhakali performance. The play focuses on the influence of the character on the performer and how the character slowly diffuses into the habits and nature of the actor and merges into his self. This transition causes immense trauma in the family life of the actor, his relationship to his wife and is evilish and painful at the same time.
This story uses Kadhakali as a performance form, where the actor is usually destined or popular in performing a specific character type regularly. It transcends from Kadhakali to the universal and identity problems faced by any performer and the possible temptations that surrounds him- a play based on the transcending to of the actor to the character. The playwright uses Kadhakali as a base tool to take off to the general characteristic and dynamics of actor-character relationship.
The performance should naturally take off from the text, open it and reinterpret to arrive at a form appropriate for the basic communication of the objective of the director and the ensemble. But viewing the play gave a feel that instead of taking further from Kadhakali; the production has taken it back to the score and milieu of Kadhakali itself. Overt use of the form in costume, movement pattern, music and acting pattern takes the performance nearer to Kadhakali than the written play. It seems to be witnessing a postmodern version of Nalacharitham Kadhakali than a new play derived from it.
The performance was well rehearsed and the details are worked to the minute niceties. The care and subtlety taken in the design of the costumes and other aspects are missing in the acting design which is much loud and lacks subtitlity. Overt and loud use of Kadhakali makes the visible outer format hide the inner dimensions of the narrative.
All the actors have done justice to the role assigned to them by the director; they seemed to have got some training in the acting system of Kadhakali. Special mention is to be made about Sudevan who acted as the ‘actor’, and Rajitha who was the best of the lot who charged the role of the wife of the actor with emotion, clarity and with powerful and glaring eyes.

Monday, May 19, 2008

ABHAYARTHIKAL (Refugees)- I

G. Sankara Pillai was one of the most versatile and towering personalities of Indian literature and theatre scene. Belonging to a generation of eminent Malayalam writers he ascended great heights and imbibed the cultures of other regions. A pathfinder and leader of great stature, he was committed to creating bridges between the theatre of the Earth and contemporary sensibility through his writings, theatre direction and teaching. He initiated a new movement in Kerala.
Abhayarthikal (Refugees) is a play written by him 1965, much before the new theatre movement started in Kerala. We are planning to stage this play with the students of Lokadharmi as part of the theatre training. I thought that it will be nice to keep a sort of account about the process of the production. I hope you can expect a series of postings about this process.

I. The Initial Discussion after the first Reading.
The play is set in a village railway station. There is the presence of some north Indian refugees settled nearby and their presence reaches the stage through mostly sounds and songs. The time is night.
The major characters
1. Janaki, a lady in her 30s, the wife of Raghavan and is from a good family. Raghavan had wed a new girl on the insistence of Janaki since she is not able to give birth to a child. She says she is waiting in the darkness of the station waiting for the train.
2. Prabhakaran, a young man who is searching for her ladylove, he feels that she is somewhere near and runs around for her. This man was in lobe with the daughter of the Porter with his silent blessing. But when a better proposal came porter married her daughter off and Prabhakaran lost the balance of his mind.
3. The Old Man who come to the railway station expecting his son who is employed in the army returning. Actually the boy is dead and the old man does not know this. He is waiting and waiting….
These three characters are the sort of refugees as Janaki says; someone can be a refugee even if he had a home or family.
The play knits these three stories into a single entity. These stories are different but are connected to one another through the feel of helplessness and the silent expectation of a train that may change the course of events.
There are other characters also who waits for the train that includes,
1. The bridegroom, soon after his marriage, who has to travel with his wife and party in the train to a new life, and he too needs the train to come.
2. The Leader waits for the train with flowers so that he can garland his leader who travels by that train. It is his duty to pay respect and regard when his leader and mentor pass through his village.
3. Arishtam Kittan, the illicit liquor peddler, with country liquor filled in a cycle tube and is take little rest at one of the station benches.
It seems that equally important is the refugees who actually do not appear on stage and the inner relationship with the characters on stage, is intended in the play.
The three plots interwoven can give rise to three different plays with a lot of melodrama and sentiments filled in. the characters are the usual and expected ones in a play written in 1960.s in Malayalam. We may encounter the same characters and similar situations in many plays. But the play depicts the social situation and concerns of the Kerala society of that period. We can observe the elements of a modernist perspective in the whole arrangement and structure of the play even if it looks so realistic in nature and the characters are at times caricatures.

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Friday, May 16, 2008

Theyyatheyyam—a play about performances

This play is significant in the oeuvre of Kavalam since, it has a very intriguing narrative and a storyline with many levels of meanings and different layers of connotations.
It narrates the story of Ramayana, the epic. It uses not the Valmiki Ramayana the most widely accepted form, but is narrating a very regional version of Ramayana, where Rama is named Daivathar, Seetha is Poonkanni, and Hanuman is Bappooran while Ravana is named Paranki chamundi. This local and folk version of Ramayana deviates from the grand text in many ways. This is more fluid, straightforward, and is the illustration of the indigenous creativity of the masses. (Here Ravana is devitalized by hanuman by removing his Urukku – a magical waste band- while Ravana dozes during his Tapasu. It reflects the immediate social concerns and milieu of the folk and their life. Accepting and acknowledging such local versions in the present context where there is a conscious attempt to establish a monolithic Ramayana, is a significant position.
This play suggests strong comments about colonialism and the history of protest against the colonizer. The Paranki is clearly the foreign invader who is to loot the resources of the land and molest Poonkanni, the local girl. The colonizer manipulates and wins over the protests spurting against him. This play has a strong comment on the power politics of colonialism and the cultural implications of it.
This play also speaks about the villainy of the local feudal landlord and his handling of the working class. Mekkanthala the local landlord has an eye over Poonkanni and tries to molest her. His brut less and cunning passion for the working class girl is clear and overt. When she do not yield to his whims and fancies, the landlord declares that none of the laborers will be given work in his field; the right to reap the harvest was denied by this landlord which follows a suggestion of possible protest and confluence of the working class. The sickle that is to reap the paddy is transformed into a weapon to eliminate the feudal landlord and becomes the symbol of the working class upsurge. Ravunni after killing the landlord has to go in hiding since police and power-centers hunts for him. Such a clear parable on the peasant revolt suggested in the play is strongly translated into the visual imagery in the whole narrative.


Varied layers of different plots are interwoven to get a seemingly simple text. Besides this the narrative structure and its composition is also important. The play becomes an essay on the performer and the performance itself. It is trying to understand the inner dynamics and chore of the performance.
Performance of myths, performance of the daily routines of the common man who is helpless and wrapped in the daily cores, and also on the performance of this particular play itself becomes the concern of the narrative. It is interesting that the performer is to perform different roles inside the performance itself. He has to narrate the story, explain and interpret it, and at the same time is the character of the play. Performance itself turns out to be the theme. While performing the Paranki Chamundi, Ramunni has to be the representative of the social attribute of the working peasant, and has to lead a protest against the feudal landlord. At the same time he has to elope with Poonkanni also return as the performer of the Theyyam. His mundane existence and his character merge into one. His social responsibility to rebel the landlord and his responsibility perform the Theyyam are having the same importance and consequence. Added together is the social human he depicts.
The singer-narrator has another significant veracity. He has to narrate, create the characters, invite and evoke them on to the stage, interpret and explain the different junctures of the plot, but also is a victim of the events on stage. At times he has to run away from the scene since the very characters he invoked beset him. He is to shift between the performer and the character and at times caught in between the two states. The position and space of him as an actor in the physical as well as the performance realm is always in transformation and is the continuation of one to the other. He is bound within the physical space of the fiction and its dynamics, under the coercion of the other characters, and has to emote, feel and suffer according to the demands of the situation. He is under the endorsement of the director, other actors, and the plot itself. The physical spacing of the actor in the performance context and his functions in an oriental performance is essayed in this creation and its enactment.
This note is the response of seeing the performance of Theyyatheyyam, a play written and directed by Kavalam Narayana Panikker and performed by Sopanam at Fine arts Hall Ernakulam and also the personal chat with Kavalam before the play.

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Kochi Needs a Real Performance Space—a Theatre

A lot of lament is there on the sad stage of theatre in Kochi and Kerala in general. It is a fact that theatre scene is not much inspiring as compared to other parts of the country. We need a better and more vibrant theatre and we have the potentials to be so.
At the same time we have to look into the basic conditions where our theatre works in. What are the essentials and pre-requisites for good theatre?
Of course, the artists are the first - Actors, technicians and directors. Those who are closer to the performance scene of the city of Kochi cannot say that there is a big dearth of artists. There are many trained directors and very enthusiastic actors, both men and woman and skillful technicians too. My theatre group Lokadharmi itself has produced a lot of artists who are keen to perform and produce plays. And there are visiting directors and actors who would liker to perform their plays in the city.
Then of course is the audience. I feel we have that too in the city. For example when a play is premiered we have almost a houseful audience. Even in fine arts hall - which is the usual performance venue - we have the hall full.
But what brings the audience in? It is the quality of plays and the quality of the show itself. Sometimes the hall defeats the show with bad acoustics poor air circulation, and heat, even if the quality of the play is good and the audience may fall short to sit through.
Producing of a new play has turned out to be very costly and laborious activity in the city. The cost of renting lights, sound along with the hall rent, put together will be at least 15,000 rupees, which the group has to find from its own pocket. Overall the cost of production for a Lokadharmi production is around 50,000 rupees. (We minimize our production expenses since the artists of the group do almost all the work, - creative and physical – and are not paid for that. Other groups spend around one lakh or more for a play. The group has to spend this much money mostly for just one show. This is besides the long rehearsal schedule that may run for an average of 3 months. And what we get back? Of course the artistic pleasure in creating and performing. We feel that we have done our part of the work.
The basic question is that whether this passion can sustain the theatre momentum and be able to cater the demand the whole populace of the city. If the group is not in a position to have a second or third show how can the theater get better? It is a fact that a play falls into its rails after 5 or 6 performances. Only then the artists and technicians are ‘inside’ the play; in tune with the inner dynamics and energy flow of the performance.
The most important and tough thing to do in our city theatre is the technical. It is a fact that for most of the plays there is no technical rehearsals. No group has a real rehearsal space to do the technical rehearsals. Also they are not in a position to afford the cost of the sound and light hiring. And no theater in the city including the Fine arts Hall has proper provisions to fix the lights. This hall which is considered to be the ‘best’ in the city, do not have even an FOH lighting provision or lights bars. It will take a minimum of 6 hours of intense physical labor, to erect light and focus them for a play. And that involves the risky job of climbing over the non-existent supports on the roof. Nowhere in India outside Kerala, is not more than 3 hours needed to erect, focus and patch lights.
And what we have left other than this, are the non performance spaces like the open space in Changampuzha park Edapalli, which is a lovely place to put up a play. But theer too the technicals are mostly impossible. We have to convert a non perfromace pace to a performance space. The quality of the audience we get there makes the performances a success. There also we have to work with poles and bars of bamboo to fix lights and have temporary curtains of tarpaulin to be fixed and protect the performance area from the traffic lights and the street lights.
I feel that it is such a bad atmosphere that makes the theatre almost impossible in the city. Even so, groups produce and perform come out with good enterprises. We are really proud that we were able to produce a play that can get the covetable Mahindra award where the aesthetics of the performance is equally important with the technical exposition and mastery over the form and that we made this possible working in such a crude situation.
And audience is there enough. I have never felt a shortage of audience. Parallel theatre has its own audience here. Our Karnnabharam was able to drag at least 200 audiences when we performed it again Changampuzha Park on last 12th, even if we had done the same play more than 20 times in the city over the last 15 years.
And our Pattabakki when performed in Changampuzha Park, fetched an audience of 1,500 over three days. Each show could accommodate only 500 people and on the last day we were forced to open the enclosure and let people stand and watch.
It is a fact that people will come to watch the shows if they are convinced that the play is good. And people should have a habit of coming to the theater again and again, for the theatre culture to flourish further. For people to develop that habit they must be able to come back to watch shows they liked or recommend to friends about the good plays that are being staged in the city. And in the present situation theatre groups cannot afford to hold many repeat shows. It is this lack of infrastructure in the city to sustain the movement that hinders the growth of theatre.
And it is a pity that this great city which is flourishing to a metro does not have a performance space. What is needed is a small theatre that can hold a capacity of 300 audiences with good acoustics, and facilities to mount lighting and should be made available for an affordable rent. The theatre groups can try out repeat shows with selling tickets and try to survive. It is the duty of a culturally healthy society to provide this amenity. I have been astonished by the performance spaces all around India. Even Bihar which we think to be a backward state in terms of education, culture, development etc, have a good and endearing performance space in Patna- the Kalidas Rangalaya. It is a highly indigenous performing space, built with minimum paraphernalia and decorum, but is a very luminous space to perform.
It is only intimate performance spaces that will promote theater innovations - the changing trends and new ideas in theatre. For example, stages in the city are tailored for a large audience and for a time, years ago, when theatre was dialogue driven. And many are not made for theatre but for holding meetings and are now getting converted into marriage halls!
The present day theatre is more an intimate experience and is meant for a smaller audience. My plays have been optimal for audiences of say 200 or 300. So I have to stage them five times if I have to show to 1,000 people. If not, the impact of the play will be diluted, if not lost.
I have no doubt to say that Kochi should follow the example of others like Bangalore and Kolkota. There they offer the sound, lights and the stage and a hall for a rent Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 a day. The rent for Rangasankara the prestigious theatre space in Bangalore is 2500 per day that includes sound, lights, and the air conditioned hall. And you can sell tickets too! It is not just a joke that if the theatre group from Kochi travels to Bangalore to put up their new show there and travel back, it will be much cheaper than putting it up in Kochi!
I know fairly well that there are enough spaces left in the city limits suitable for constructing a theatre. There is enough money too. But somehow we don’t think about it today; we postpone it for tomorrow, since we have other priorities for today...
And we lament for theatre…!!!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Evolution of Kavalam Theatre in the Indian Context



One of the most important functions in Niravu –Fulfillment, the program organized as a tribute to Kavalam Mahayana Panikkar on his 80th birthday was a seminar on the evolution of Kavalam Theatre in the Indian Context. The program was held in Kanakakunnu palace Thiruvanathapuram from 18th to 20th April, 2008.

Well known Sanskrit scholar and theatre expert Dr. K.D. Thripadhi set the seminar in the in the right focus in his presidential remark by soliciting Kavalam theatre with a historic perspective. He suggested that the proscenium theatre and its era in the Indian arena were over by the sixties. Habib Tanveer has already come back leaving his London experiences behind, to the Chathisgadi villages to reinvent the Indian theatre. The Sanskrit theatre tradition of Koodiyattam was being revived and set resolute in Kerala. The 4th volume of Natyasastra – The Indian treatise on theatre, was published from Baroda in 1964. All these coincide and mutually fulfill the search for an Indian identity in Theatre.

The question in the air was how to make the age old theatre traditions contemporary. Theatre is not an archival form, but it is to be contemporary, vibrant and living. Kavalam had a specific role in bring out this resolution.

The visit of Kavalam to Ujjain in 1978 with his Sanskrit adaptation of Sakuntalam is an important event in his career. and the focus of Indian theatre of the seventies was on the Sanskrit tradition of performance.

Tripadi argued that the position of Kavalam is at par with the masters of world theatre along with Eugene Barba, Richard Schechner, Peter brook, along with Rattan Tiyyam from the Indian continent. All these masters were trying to conjure the oriental theatre tradition to expound a modern theatre form and performance language, that can address the sensibilities of the new era.

Kavalam dissolved his own idiom of expression even if it is derived from classical forms with the Sanskrit tradition of performance and at the same time used it to interpret Sanskrit plays with a modern perspective. Tripadhi was focusing on the interpretations of Kavalam in his adaptations of Bhasa, Kalidasa, and other Sanskrit playwrights.

In the works of Kavalam, a complimenting harmony of the folk and classical traditions of the land can be observed. The tradition is not an end in itself but is the process of continuity, and this makes Kavalam a contemporary theater director. He is using the mythology in order to discover new meanings valid for the current day.

B.R. Bhargava observed in his paper that ‘theatre’ is to be liberated from the written text and Kavalam is one director who did it in his productions. Confirming to the tradition of eastern theatre Kavalam did not pass the agonies and miseries from the stage to the audience as in western theatre. Kavalam theatre refines the spectator and provides the Ananda out of the Rasanaubhava.

Udayan Vajpeyi observed the flow of the narrative and the eclectic amplitude of scales – vocal and physical – in Kavalam productions. His Vachika or the vocal patterns range from prose to songs, mundane speech to refined Alapa of music. In movement it encompasses the simple walk to the dance. This whole range of microtones of Sruthi to the dance choreography makes his plays a Leela in its true meaning. With this Leela Kavalam contemporizes, recreates the old Desi laws into a new Margi way. With choreography Kavalam creates the whole macrocosm of universe from earth to sky to water in a unique structure; a pagan mode to express a pagan vision.

In all these papers the adaptations of Kavalam as a director of the Sanskrit plays were in focus. So I felt that it is appropriate to speak about his original writing in Malayalam as my response. I started my talk by saying that the contribution of Kavalam to Indian theatre is total and comprehensive. He was a writer and director merged into one who knew the essence of the language of theatre and its creative milieu. As a writer he demanded that his works has to be reinterpreted in performance and not to be staged as such. He insisted that the creativity of theatre is in reinterpreting the text by a director and a host of actors. I remembered the discussion between me and Kavalam when I was to direct Poranadi (outcast) written by him for Lokadharmi. He asked me specifically not to follow each and every line written by him as something sacred. He asked me to change it and make it my own. This insight is so important in the context, where many of the playwrights insist that each of the word and even punctuations they created are holly and should not be changed. He expected me to take the freedom he himself takes with the texts of Bhasa while he adapts them. And Bhasa has also taken the same creative freedom to interpret the Mahabharata in his plays.

Another important assertion he made in Indian theatre is to validate the regional language theatre and culture and reinforce it. Even now the Indian theatre is imagined as the works in Hindi produced from the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkota. India outside these cities was not a concern of the cultural intelligentsia. It was the result of the works of BV Karanth, Kavalam Narayana Panikkar and Ratan Thiyyam that the regional language theatre is accepted or considered equal with the mainland theatre. The recognition and acceptance we experience in Delhi or other north Indian cities for our plays in Malayalam, is the result of the works of Kavalam and his persistence to validate the language theatre, physically culturally and aesthetically. Through his works he established the language, its cultural implications, and aesthetics as a distinct entity. Thus in redefining Indian theatre from the mainland and metro sensibilities, to a pan-Indian conglomeration of regional entities is a true contribution of Kavalam and his colleagues.

Kavalam was also one playwright who wrote his texts in an Indian narrative mode. His plays are texts to be performed, knitted in a loose narrative that suits performance. It is so flexible so that, an actor and a director get enough space to interpret it according to their sensibilities and viewpoints. His plays have passages and pathways to enter, roam around and to exit for a creative person. The journey into the text, through it and out of it and re-entering into a Kavalam text is a highly enriching and creative experience for a director. This is possible since the narrative structure of his writing is truly Indian and not influenced by the western models of proscenium drama. It gives creative freedom to invent the form and interpret the content. He writes in a real ethnic Malayalam using the rural flavor of the spoken language. It can communicate meanings so sharp and subtle. The sonority and vocal patterns are set to Kerala meter patterns. He may be writing in prose and in verse or in poetry. But the prose has the inner rhythm inside it so that it can be sung by an actor. Also the verse and poetry can be said as prose dialogues without changing the written text. The vocalization of his language is so suited to meet the needs of the creative actor and director and to suit the interpretation of the scene. This flexibility which allows shifts between prose, poetry and verse is because his writing is closer to the aural tradition than the literary tradition of ‘writing’ the literature.

It is interesting to note the subtlety with which he denotes the political meanings into his plays. Most of his plays are derived from local myths or legends from a specific locale in Kerala. He writes a play based on this native myth belief or hearsay, to express universally valid ironies of contemporary existence. In most of his plays, the existing social structure is at the verge of collapse and there is the throb of the evolution of a new system. This kind of a socio-political situation when one system is collapsing and another is to evolve is a very interesting political, cultural and sociological scenario with a lot of intrinsic drama. Panikkar always depicts this agonies and uncertainties of a political transformative period. It is worthy of note that almost all of the rulers/kings in his plays are weak characters, not capable of doing anything or to control the given situation. They are insignificant presences and Panikker leaves their cataclysm with a sarcastic smile. They are almost clowns or pawns at the threshold of a changing history and the density of the situation. Thus his plays are having a political underscore with a cultural and historic perspective, and this aspect of his plays are not much discussed till day.

Panikkar is also a good translator of plays. His translations of Bhasa texts into Malayalam are truly a great contribution. In translating Bhasa plays he keeps the prerogatives and concerns of Bhasa in tact, smoothly into Malayalam so suited to perform.

Kavalam has also played a very valid role in formulating a theatre training system with an Indian perspective. When our theatre schools including NSD are still thriving to free it from the clutches of the western training methodologies and are incapable of identifying an Indian system of actor training, Kavalam has quite successfully arrived at a system of training the Indian artists and is practicing it.
Thus the contribution of Kavalam to Indian theater is spread on all aspects of theatre-directing, writing, theorizing, training and performing.

Kavalam theatre becomes the reference point for the present day theatre practice in this part of the country. One can work along, further or deviate from his creative contribution. The evolving Indian theatre has to salute this maestro and guru with all respect and reticence.

Other respondents in the seminar were Puthusseri Ramachandran, T.M. Abraham, Venuji, V.Jayarajan and Sangita Gundecha with .P. Narayana Kurup as the moderator.
On the whole the seminar was trying to place Kavalam Narayana Panikkar and his contribution through the evolution of Indian theatre to its new edifice.

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Friday, April 18, 2008

Kavalam Turns 80

Kavalam Narayana Panicker, the doyen of Kerala theatre turns 80 tomorrow. To pay tribute to his artistic Endeavour to theatre in specific and culture in total, his friends and admirers are organising a celebration in Thiruvanathapuram.

There will be a seminar which places his contribution to Indian theatre, a photo exhibition on Kerala Theatre, a function to honour him, performance of plays written and directed by him and more , in the 3 day celebrations. Nedumudi venu and Kavalam’s old disciples along with new thespians of Sopanam will be performing the much celebrated play Avananavan Kadampa penned by him and directed by late G.Aravindan.

I am reminded of my earlier days in Theatre where I am astonished by the strength, beauty and possibilities of indigenous theatre, when I watched Avanavan kadampa at the Boys High School ground in Kuravilangad- my home village- in 1997. The best of acting I have ever seen in my life from Nedumudi Venu (in stage and films) is as pattuparisha trying to court Chithira pennu the heroine of the play. The other cast included late Gopi, Jagannathan, late Krishnankutty Nair, Gopalakrishnan, Late Nattuvan paramasivam etc... I am to revisit those memories when I will be watching kadampa on this 20th in Trivandrum.

The theatre of Kerala and mine is connected with the works of Kavalam. Personally my first ever play (acting and directing) is Ottayan written by Kavalam, which physically launched me in theatre. Later I directed Poranadi written by him which turned out to be one of my best productions. The production of Lokadharmi was attempting to see poranadi from the cultural-political perspective on the evolution of Kerala society. It was about the human sacrifices done for the benefit of the village community and also to eliminate the uprising of a hero from the lower cast who may grow to question and thwart the existing power structure… The myth is suggestive and it expose the hypocrisy of those in power and their heinous means to stick to it. A state derives its strength not form the upper strata, but from the lowest, however rude or crude they be. For the king the bali is only an anushtana-a ritual, but for Pokkan it is ninam- a bath in blood, an act of self-dedication.

And I have started rehearsing another play written by Kavalam, Karimkutty which can be read a sequel to Poranadi.

Always the works of Kavalam was a reference point from which my theatre starts, develops and grows. The many hours I spent with him talking about theatre have been immense source of inspiration.

I remember my first journey abroad with the Malayalam adaptation of the play Medea by Euripides. After reaching Athens to take part in the International Festival on Ancient Greek drama 2001, we were taken through a long road journey to the city Kalamatta where our first show was scheduled. At late night 11.00 clock Tchakiris, the festival director and who himself is a director of plays was waiting to receive us in the front lawn of the hotel. The first thing he asked me was about Kavalam and he sang two lines in Malayalam starting “Maharaja, Maharaja …” along with drumming on the table. This line was from the Malayalam adaptation of Prometheus done by Kavalam, and he started speaking in length about the poetic heights of the Kavalam’s adaptation of the Greek play and its appropriateness. I was so happy to tell him back that Kavalam is one of my gurus.

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