The Coronavirus (Covid19) Pandemic has literally shut down performances, exhibitions, gatherings, festivals all across the globe. The financial blow the theatre and the entertainment industry is being dealt, is both unknown and unprecedented. Is this going to be the new normal? How are theatre practitioners are reacting to the change, given the extended lockdown…
This is a humanitarian crisis leading up to an artistic one. The enforced lockdown has become a testing time for theatre artistes. Amidst the growing uncertainty, the question of when the forcibly stymied juggernaut can get rolling again might be debatable but in the interim, theatre practitioners are seeking out via mediums to stay memorable while catering to an ever-multiplying demand for home-bound entertainment. Some theatre practitioners have begun experimenting by relocating existing structures of theatrical art production online. The six feet apart new normal obviously doesn't allow for live art presentations as we know it. Shivani Vakil Savant, founder of The Broadband Theatre Company has a clearly set goal for her organisation. "The main objective to set up The Broadband Theatre Company, was to just keep going... it's a theatre thing, the show goes on, you improvise... no matter what the circumstances! We want to ensure that students have access to learn skills to perform, present and communicate through theatre, in spite of having to stay home." Though just a few days old in the virtual world she believes her theatre company is here to stay!
Through social media we've had a glimpse of several examples of how innovative theatre artistes from across the world are giving the virtual world a taste of a distanced (albeit colourless) version of Live Art. In fact, Shaili Sathyu, an innovator of children's theatre feels that this pandemic lockdown calls for retreat. "A time for hibernation, brushing up on skills and exploring from within - an artistic response to the grim reality outside." She cites @nicholasberger blog post on Medium.com, which has gone viral, as inspiration.
Tathagata Chowdhury, who has just put his Theatrecian online festival behind him says, " For sometime at least, proscenium performances will be struggling to get the audience back, well after the lockdown is lifted. Till then, this could be an alternative medium. It's at a nascent stage. I think on 10th April when we did a live show, we had people from across the country and few from abroad tuning in. The response was amazing. We were able to get around 80 people and the organisation for whom we did the show, want us to do more such events."
While the enforced lockdown divined from the government's flattening the curve containment exercise may have incentivised theatre enterprise in the form of via media experiments, the fear is that the rush to be reckoned with might sully the very nature of this much revered, undervalued and severely neglected art form. It's important to realise like @nicholasberger opines, that, "Provocative, risk-taking, unabashedly theatrical work is going to be critical when we are finally allowed within six feet of each other again."
In the meantime, though, theatre artistes who have been cruelly evicted from their World (the Stage) and have had to put all artistic projects on hold indefinitely, are struggling to come up with innovative ideas to cope. Their main agenda is to keep the production of art, an ongoing process, despite the difficulties. Danish Hussain, an actor and open mike performer who is stuck in the USA and utilising his enforced time there by performing open mike sessions, says, "The digital theatre performances came on very early in the lockdown. Things were unravelling fast and I guess most were responding to the changing ecosystem with a hands-on-let's-do-it-approach rather than sit-back-let's-reason-it-approach. The registrations were decent. And going by the number of views one received it was encouraging."
Virtual play readings, quarantine play scripts, digging into archival footage, old musical theatre and performance recordings, stand-up recordings, poetry recitations, songs of hope, monologues, distance maintaining choir performances, online artistic workshops etc. (and the list is endless) are part and parcel of this new normal. Facebook Live, Instagram, Telegram, Zoom, Ukulele, YouTube etc are some of the mediums used to make this accessible to the public.
Forget about qualitative assemblage of high-performance art. The idea is not to worry about quality but put forth enough material to keep the terrified audience engaged throughout their unexpected house arrest. While Naseeruddin Shah, Javed Akhtar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Shabana Azmi recited poetry to keep the pandemic fears at bay, other artistes took to many other forms of performance to keep themselves in the reckoning.
The hastily put together play-readings, performances on Facebook live, app based interactive performances et al, on the online space is giving theatre lovers something to chew about. The Royal Opera House and NCPA are streaming archival content (Ballet, Opera, Folk Theatre, Modern Fusion performances, etc.) for free on a regular basis. The Shakespeare Centre of LA has a live streaming webinar (through Zoom) on how to choreograph intimacy in Shakespeare Plays. There's a WhatsApp forward that gives short term access to the Phantom of the Opera performance. Lady Gaga put together a 'One World Together At Home' virtual concert with artists like Elton John, Chris Martin, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Lang Lang, David Beckham, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and many more in aid of WHO's pandemic response. Pink Floyd announced a YouTube concert series for fans in quarantine.
In Mumbai, theatre practitioner Rasika Agashe uploaded a subset of four videos- one of which features actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, in association with BookMyShow.com on her Being Association Theatre channel.
Both Danish Hussain and Rasika Agashe feel that organisers, performers, audiences were willing to experiment. Danish queries "If this is our changed reality, then can we create a sustainable paying model with performers shifting from stage to their own rooms with just a phone or a laptop cam as an audience. How would they decide on the nature of the content? I guess we were exploring answers for all these questions and many more." He goes on to add, "If the lockdowns become a norm, digital performances will also change. Performers may invest in better equipment for lighting, acoustic, better broadband streaming services, apps, etc. They may invest in production design, create permanent spaces to look like a set within their personal spaces, we may also see more solo performances. Or highly tech dependent, coordinated, and planned multi-actor performances like #LockdownLove that Roshan Abbas, Tess Joseph, and Sheena Khalid of Kommuneity have got going this week."
Unfortunately, as @nicholasberger asserts "There's a reason theatre makers weren't staging readings of plays over Zoom two-months ago. It's the same reason we continue to turn to theatre, even when Hulu programs a bigger season than any off-Broadway theater possibly could. The singular transcendence of human congregation is irreplaceable." Tathagata, Danish Hussain, Shivani Vakil Savant and Rasika Agashe echo a similar sentiment. They assert that nothing can replace a live theatre performance. The energy and vibe of a real live art performance can never be replaced by a digital one!
Johnson Thomas is an independent critic and columnist.
