Veteran theatre, television and film person Sunil Shanbag talks about his latest play S*X, M*RALITY, AND, CENS*RSHIP, which opened at Prithvi Theatre on 29th September 2009. The play- a multi-media performance is an outcome of extensive research on the censorship and controversy that surrounded Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER in the 1970s. The research and the performance has been supported by the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under its 'New Performance Programme.'
Deepa Punjani
How and when did the idea for this play germinate? The idea came to me late last year after I did the Satyadev Dubey Show for the inauguration of the Prithvi festival. In that show Shanta Gokhale and I explored the trajectory of Dubey's ideas and work as a theatre director. We used enactments, video, testimonies, etc. It worked well. I thought... why not push the idea further and explore a period and an issue in contemporary theatre history. Censorship seemed a logical and an inevitable issue to deal with.
How many of you have been involved with the core research? Well, after a period of discussion Shanta Gokhale first created an ideas structure and draft of the script and then Irawati Karnik joined in for a period of focussed research. This was followed by another draft from Shanta which Irawati developed further.
Tell us more about the larger research concerning this subject... We looked at a lot of material from the original production of SAKHARAM BINDER directed by Kamlakar Sarang. We studied the historical context of the production in the 70s, which included popular cinema, and theatre. We also looked at the files from the stage scrutiny board referring to the 'Sakharam Binder' case.
At what point in time did the performance/play come into its own? What was the process like? It's been a long process and we have had inputs from many people -- translators, choreographers, music composers, song writers, video and animation artists, and of course, the actors. I think the performance has now come into its own with the audience watching and responding enthusiastically to the canvas of ideas they are confronted with.
We've had various instances of censorship in the theatre since the days of SAKHARAM BINDER. In fact your other noted production COTTON 56 POLYESTER 84 too faced the brunt of it. The other arts have also been at the receiving end of censorship. The debate is complex and not without its legal implications. What does your research endeavour to do? I think we are attempting to understand why and who says "NO" in society. I believe this exploration throws up interesting insights that will help us as artists to understand the forces we are faced with. There are many kinds of censorship ... of the state and of societal forces ... our play is an attempt to understand them through one specific case, that of SAKHARAM BINDER, and to draw larger meanings from that.
*The interviewer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and academic keenly interested in Theatre & Performance Studies.
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