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It was their first performance in India; and a memorable one.
As the night drew to a close on the week long fest at Thespo 16, WALKING PATH, the production from Sri Lanka, bagged most of the awards. Of the five full-length plays that competed, two groups were from Kolkata, one from Pune, one from Mumbai and the winner from Colombo. Collectively though, it was a series of hit and misses.
The festival-cum-competition opened with the play NORMAL, which was an impactful opening indeed. NORMAL is the fictional story of a very real monster - Peter Kurten, a serial killer from Germany - told from the viewpoint of his lawyer, Justus Wehner. Kurten's crimes in the 1930s were so outrageous that he got the nicknames 'The Vampire' and 'The Monster of Dusseldorf'. This Hindustani production is an adaptation of Anthony Neilson's play by the same name.
Justus Wehner (Manoj Sharma), the lawyer is confident and he seems invincible. 'An easy to win case', he naively says. But as the story unfolds, his self-assurance begins to crumble slowly and his previously upheld ideals of right and wrong lose their hold and merge into a single realm of doubt. The play beautifully brings out the fragility of the human mind and resurrects the long contested debate of whether a monster is born or created. The play takes a strong standpoint and answers its own question. At the closing, the actors state that while sentencing a 'devil' to the gallows, it would only be humane to 'look-up their childhood files.' For NORMAL, 'nurture' wins over 'nature' in the debate.
Yogendra Vikram Singh's portrayal of the mysterious and equally loathsome Peter Kurten was intense to say the least; and he rightfully earned the
'Outstanding Male Actor' award. Kurten's cold-hearted exterior betrays hints of a painful past, and plays with our minds as we find ourselves drawn to the madman and his eccentricities. Singh's performance of being overpowered by uncontrollable sexual arousal at the sight and smell of blood was awe-inspiring yet frightening.
Another important mention would be of actor Geetika Budhiraja who played multiple roles as Mrs Kurten, the 13 year old rape victim Eva, and as the mannequin dressed in the clothes of one of Kurten's victims. Even in her small roles, Budhiraja managed to gather much interest and was equally terrifying as Kurten's wife/seductress and truly pitiful as his victim.
Budhiraja knows to play with her voice, essaying the role of each character with a varied style; and she gracefully glides from one role to the other commanding the attention she draws.
As one would expect with this theme, the play had startling moments that gathered collective gasps. With an effective background score that matched the semi-darkness and the pitch-black scenes, it seemed right out of a horror movie to give goose bumps. And while the play was mostly enjoyable, the second half seemed dragged and began to lose momentum. Trimming the monologues and maintaining the pace of the story would be significantly beneficial if the cast decides to take the play forward, which they should.
NORMAL brought forth the absurdity of society's definition of 'abnormality' as it made clear that we all have our own demons. It goes to show that an individual's environment is his reality and however abnormal it may seem; it can be 'normal' to him. The play is for an adult audience.
On the second night, TOMAR DAKE, a multi-lingual play from Kolkata was performed. TOMAR DAKE, meaning 'a call' or 'a bulava' to rise up and fight against injustice, brings together stories of the atrocities taking place in the name of religion, that exploit the idea of jihad.
The drama, in its street-play style, is energetic, enthralling, and visually gratifying. In the absence of a fixed set, the play solely relies on the actor's performance and their collective depictions of their small stories. The play is broken down into 12 scenes - each is a different story but together they tell the common tale of human atrocities caused by misguided ambitions, mindless power struggles and unfounded and unreal nationalism. The stories take place across the Middle East, and cover territory from the Israel-Palestine conflict to the Taliban in Pakistan.
The play begins with the narrator elaborating on the abominable state of affairs in our times and the drama moves into short stories from each of these regions. The role played by Manjira Dey as Aparna, a young girl from Iraq, on the brutality of fundamentalists is very moving. By the end, the good supersedes the evil but in no uncertain terms does it mean that the war is over. The cast calls upon the audience to join them, in their own capacity; to stand up for the right of human beings and for the good in Islam.
While the play is largely in Bengali, the actors make an honest attempt to translate and adapt it for Mumbai's audience. Yet the dramatic scenes are kept in their original form. The most poignant of them was the depiction of the rape of a young woman at a bloodied battleground. A white dupatta acts as the thread binding the rapist and his victim and while both actors perform separately, the message seamlessly integrates into a profoundly pitiful act.
TOMAR DAKE's strength is in the choreography of each act - large sweeping movements that make complete use of the stage-space along with cappella pieces and singing that is sometimes accompanied by the drum. The audio and the visual elements are well combined and make it a moving experience. The only let down was the pitch of the actors' voices - sometimes the most appreciable pieces were missed simply because the audience was struggling to hear the words. Many dialogues, especially of the cunning King, were left to imagination. All in all the play was a visual treat with moments that were captivating and others that were comparatively dull.
The third play from Pune, CASTLE OF GLASS, a psychological thriller in Marathi, is largely performed by two young actors - Sujay Jadhav as the 'Chitrakar' (painter) (who is also the writer of the play) and Anshuman Joshi as Kumar Deodhar/Arun, a young man looking for a way to escape his phobia.
On the lines of the book and the movie 'Shutter Island', the plot seems to have been much done. Yet, the play is enjoyable predominantly on account of the actors' performances and their witty lines. Both Jadhav and Joshi seem natural and do not break the illusion of the story. If anything they seem very comfortable in their characters' skin.
The story begins with the young man approaching the 'Chitrakar' who is his last hope of curing his 'problem'. The problem is odd - the man is stuck in a sort of invisible glass prison from which he has no escape. As a child he was bullied but over time he learnt to live with this prison. But as he grew, the transparent glass restrained him from any kind of pleasure, often showing up in the moments he began to enjoy his life.
The 'artist' an equally odd man, seems to be aware of the problem as he was forced to live with it for 25 years himself. And the way out seems equally absurd - and from here, things take a turn for the worse.
The simplicity of the play and the honesty of the performance make CASTLE OF GLASS endearing to watch. The conversation between the two characters is enriching - flowing from spirituality to existential dilemmas - as they sustain interest in their banter. It is only when the monologues repeat and the conversations start to loop that the charm begins to wear off. With some tough editing, this story, with its twists and suspense, has the potential to garner further appreciation. The other problem was that leaflets explaining the plot were given out at the beginning of the play and the suspense was revealed in the first paragraph. That could have been completely avoided.
WALKING PATH from Colombo, Sri Lanka, charmed the judges and won most of the awards, including the Best Play. This devised piece of theatre, written by Ruwanthie De Chickera and directed by Jayampathi Guruge, revolves around the activity along the walking paths that were laid in Colombo after the end of the 35-year war in Sri Lanka. The production seems to suggest that these walking paths which are meant to beautify the city and are seen as recreational and fitness areas by locals are also places that are closely monitored by the military/government. As far as one goes about their exercise routines ranging from jogging to laughter clubs, it is ok. But a couple cannot get too close, same sex relationships cannot be tolerated and neither dissent nor organised activity of any kind will do. The play has almost no words and the action is physical and movement-driven.
Yet the politics and the stifling of voices which the play seeks to highlight are not compelling and clear enough in the staging. While there is something about the actions assuming a routine that almost gets ludicrous, thus heightening our sensitivity, they are often overrun by repetition and stay limited to the act itself without creating any deeper resonance or a sub-text. There are elements of inbuilt humour that work but the play's larger, overarching theme/s remain obscured.
The last entrant in the competition section of the festival was TAMBOLA, a light and entertaining play from Kolkata. While this comedy elicited many laughs, with its quick wit, and abuse-laden language, it was watered down by its stereotyped characters arguing in a predictable manner. The play seemed like a raw and crass version of the Bollywood movie 'Hera-Pheri'.
Typical goons gel with your typical good-guy-gone-bad to come together for the most conventional crime - robbing a bank. And as things turn ugly, the drama heightens and the foolhardiness is maxed out. What works for this play is that the pace, through intervening flashbacks, is held well and does not slack. Despite the amateurish plot, the high-energy and quick line-deliveries sustain interest. Additionally, every character seems exaggerated and the actors are talented enough to adhere to their overdrawn performances. For all its apparent clichés, TAMBOLA was enjoyable and acquired the response it hoped for.
FALLS 2-11, a collaborative play between Thespo and Clerke and Joy from the UK was not part of the competition. It is an interesting piece of theatre that derives inspiration from the act of 'falling'. The creators Rachel Clerke and Josephine Joy, who ingeniously take on roles in the production, say ''everyone has stories about falling.'' Their story predominantly revolves around a young girl (Rucha Apte) who narrates her experience of what appears to be the fall of a regime. She intersperses her experience with personal recollections about falling in love. The production, from the point of view of its text/narrative, is imperfect, mainly because it is driven by a loose framework of ideas contained in the imagery and the symbolic act of 'falling'. But its greater strength is that it is provocative. The staging is simple yet the design is pretty good and the live music and sound (by Sid Vashi and Daisy Moon) is gripping. The opening introduction by Clerke and Joy is refreshing and its humour self-effacing. Rucha Apte's narration holds but could be more exploratory.
*Shonita Joshi is a freelance journalist with a wide array of interests. She has a major in Economics and Banking and has done her post-graduation in Journalism.
Deepa Punjani is the Editor of this website.
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