Manav Kaul's RED SPARROW explores human behaviour, psychology and man's tussle with life. He dwells deep into the mind of the individual to find the truth and motives of human existence. Through this journey he also brings out the suffering that human beings are subject to. Kaul successfully uses the format of absurd theatre as he presents his attempt at bringing out the meaninglessness of life. The director's study and understanding of this form of theatre is evident from the plot of his play, which is random, devoid of usual logic and different from the conventional narrative. The director tells a story, which if followed as a conventional story is likely to mislead and confuse the audience. Like most absurd plays, this play is also a search for something which is undefined yet clear, and can be heard and felt.
The Red Sparrow is an idea which keeps evolving and has different connotations throughout the play. This symbolism achieves diverse meanings as the play progresses, and the search for the red sparrow intensifies. The Red Sparrow could be anything. For some it is the soul or the inner self, for some its freedom, while for some others it's just a bird. The author plays around with these established notions of the Red Sparrow. Although the plot of the play revolves around the search for the Red Sparrow, Kaul later breaks this illusion by making one of his characters despise the existence of the Red Sparrow. He calls it a myth. It is this interesting fluctuation of ideas, concepts and characters throughout the play which make the play an exciting watch.
Like Godot in WAITING FOR GODOT, or the invisible guests on the chairs in THE CHAIRS, the Red Sparrow is physically absent. The author has provided multiple layers to the play making the process of discovery even more interesting for the audience. The plot is simple. The play starts with a young writer Anand presenting his newly written script to a veteran author Vinod Kumar Shukla. As Shukla starts reading the script, all the characters in the play come alive on stage and Anand's Play is performed within the ongoing play.
The characters in Anand's story however are a bunch of great writers and famous characters from well-known novels. All these characters enter with their own stories and later get connected to each other in sometimes funny, and sometimes mysterious ways. Since everything is devoid of logic, the connections and conversations are also random and abrupt, thus making them hilarious at times. These characters are linked mainly by one aim-'search for the Red Sparrow', which also serves to be the chief conflict of the play. While being faced with this goal the characters meet, converse with each other, develop interesting relationships but nothing really happens.
The characters in the play appear lost, inconsistent and shifting in time and space within the structure of the play. While Rumi, a character from Nirmal Verma's story is placed in Anand's story, Raskolnikov, a famous character, from Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' keeps shifting between reality and illusion. Others perceive him to be the same character from 'Crime and Punishment' while he claims to be a man simply with the same name. Following the tradition of absurd plays, we see the familiar images of exploitation and one character dominating the other as Devyani controls Raskolnikov with a whip. Besides, the comic book, caricaturish representation of the American novelist Bukowski, and the tortured and tormented image of the Austrian novelist Kafka are examples of brilliant imagination. Another interesting character is that of Vinod Kumar Shukla, the famous author who performs dual roles like most other characters.
The strength of this play is in its writing. It is filled with references from Literature, Philosophy, witty wordplay, thought provoking ideas, abrupt monologues, eccentric characters and wonderful poetry. The conversation between 'Mein' (me) and Rumi about two lovers being together to share each other's emptiness lends the play its dark tone. Different characters break into a monologue every now and then. There also seem to be many biographical references as the author many a times draws inspiration from his own life. Some themes in the play are recurrent and personal in nature as when Bukowski breaks into a monologue about his father.
The direction is stylish and minimal, and the director creates the necessary environment to bring out the maximum from every scene. The music and lights help to add style and finesse to the play. The actors give life to this play. It was a pleasure watching Sudhir Pandey on stage in the character of Shukla. His timing and characterization help the director to create the desired effect. Shubrajyoti as Nirmal Verma and Kumud Mishra as Bukowski are consistent in their performance. Umesh Jagtap as Raskolnikov , Bhushan Borgaonkar as Kafka's father and Nimrat Kaur as Rumi seem to be in top form as they move, speak and breathe right, thus contributing to making this play more accessible . Manav Kaul seems to have hit all the right notes with this play. He raises a few questions, speaks about his experiences and puts all of them together in an interesting manner thus asking the viewer to "draw his own conclusions, and make his own errors."
*Sudeep Modak is a young theatre person with interests in other media. He has worked with Ramu Ramanathan, Chandan Roy Sanyal and has done production work for THE PROPHET by Naseeruddin Shah's theatre group Motley, amongst other things.
Manav Kaul's RED SPARROW explores human behaviour, psychology and man's tussle with life. He dwells deep into the mind of the individual to find the truth and motives of human existence. Through this journey he also brings out the suffering that human beings are subject to. Kaul successfully uses the format of absurd theatre as he presents his attempt at bringing out the meaninglessness of life. The director's study and understanding of this form of theatre is evident from the plot of his play, which is random, devoid of usual logic and different from the conventional narrative. The director tells a story, which if followed as a conventional story is likely to mislead and confuse the audience. Like most absurd plays, this play is also a search for something which is undefined yet clear, and can be heard and felt. 
The characters in the play appear lost, inconsistent and shifting in time and space within the structure of the play. While Rumi, a character from Nirmal Verma's story is placed in Anand's story, Raskolnikov, a famous character, from Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' keeps shifting between reality and illusion. Others perceive him to be the same character from 'Crime and Punishment' while he claims to be a man simply with the same name. Following the tradition of absurd plays, we see the familiar images of exploitation and one character dominating the other as Devyani controls Raskolnikov with a whip. Besides, the comic book, caricaturish representation of the American novelist Bukowski, and the tortured and tormented image of the Austrian novelist Kafka are examples of brilliant imagination. Another interesting character is that of Vinod Kumar Shukla, the famous author who performs dual roles like most other characters. 
