Review

PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND MARNOPARANT (An evening of two one-act plays)

Direction : Indradeepto Roy
Writers : Shubhrajyoti Barat and Fernando Arrabal
Cast : Aparna Upadhyay, Prakhar Singh, Ankur Sotwal, Indrodeepto Roy and others

PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND MARNOPARANT (An evening of two one-act plays) Play Review


Saudamini Kalra



 PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND MARNOPARANT (An evening of two one-act plays) Review

Mumbai-based group Theatre Infinity staged its first initiative this past week. On the programme for the evening were two one-act plays by the ensemble - both providing a fresh insight into conflicts, humanity and death. With minimal design, almost no set or scene changes, and an interesting shift in pace and mood, the pieces contributed to a promising and engaging debut performance by the troupe.

The show kicked off with an adaptation of PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD, a delicate but effective satire on war penned in 1961 by prolific Spanish writer and artist Fernando Arrabal. The play, like other plays by Arrabel grapples with themes of the absurdity of life in times of the Second World War and the political turmoil the period witnessed.


PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD presents the ludicrous tale of a guileless man-child who is a soldier. He is visited by his doting parents for a spontaneous picnic. As he is busy holding fort at his bunker with innocent dedication, his mother and father show up and begin to scout for scenic spots to spread the sheets and lay down the spread of samosas and kachoris. As they sit down to commence family time, the trio nonchalantly discuss enemy death tolls and crack jokes about bombs and guns as though discussing an ongoing science project that a child may be working on in school.

Into the mix walks in an even more gullible and sweetly clueless soldier from the enemy camp, who the first soldier then politely goes on to capture, with the gentle guidance and encouragement of his parents, and, oddly enough, at the helpful suggestions of the enemy soldier himself. The sequence is reminiscent of two children decoding the rules of their game of cops and thieves with adult supervision. They tie up the enemy soldier, taking pains to ensure he is comfortable, and then proceed to make small talk with him about life in the enemy camp and his experiences with war.

The script is replete with delightfully subtle references to the somewhat inane and arbitrary routines and rituals in the lives of war troops. You almost forget that you are witness to a story of war and not of two children discussing difficult homework assignments as they complain about their failure to grasp the purpose of the work they are doing. Prakhar Singh as the stationed soldier and Ankur Sotwal as the trespasser from the opposing camp manage a nice chemistry that is made up of equal parts of adolescent competitiveness and mutual curiosity.

Keen direction of mood by director Indradeepto Roy seems to have helped extract performances that are rooted in conviction and which contrast the outrageous circumstances well, keeping us engaged with the fate of these two young men until the very end - when a sudden event breaks the idyllic world of the picnic and transforms it into the reality of war. If only such a keen eye was paid to the actors through space and time. Their journeys quickly became monotonous and predictable. The forced use of dramatic music to complement lines about Death (with a capital D), also comes out of nowhere and muddles the otherwise simple tone.

The second play of the evening takes us into a more personal, more naturalistic battlefield of human contradictions. MARNOPARANT ("after death"), takes us to a bench by the sea-side where a young man dressed in office formals awaits someone anxiously. The person he is waiting for, as it turns out, is the husband of the woman he had been having an affair with, and who has just died in an accident. Prakhar Singh marked his second appearance of the evening as the "other man" while director Indradeepto Roy dons the actor's cap as the distressed spouse. The two are naturally awkward around each other at first - the husband in particular being very suspicious of the relationship between his deceased wife and her lover as he encounters him. But as they keep conversing, they find themselves exchanging memories of the woman they had both loved - her quirks, her habits and so on. Like the two soldiers in PICNIC..., we find the two men develop an unlikely camaraderie, as they reveal their pain and insecurities to each other, and begin to support each other through their common loss.


The story is interesting in its unapologetic emotional tenderness, and both the actors do a good job of playing with this element. They are supported by good sound and light design as well. The only moments that didn't quite impress, just like in the previous piece, were some of the melodramatic moments set up to represent deeper sentiments. These melodramatic moments can be done away with as both pieces rely on subtlety and in that sense do not seem to require the underlining of any particular emotional crescendos.

The production as a whole is infused with certain freshness because of the chosen stories and the faithful attempt to highlight what is special about these stories. With a talented cast, some of whom are perhaps more experienced and in control of their skills than others, both plays have the potential for growth and improvement with more shows- whether they continue as part of the same show or even separately as stand-alone performances.

*Saudamini Kalra is a student of theatre and occasionally a poet.


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