AKASH, directed and acted by Baharul Islam and his Seagull theatre group from Guwahati was in Mumbai during the NSD Satellite festival in January 2008. The play does not scale the heights of his production APEKSHA, which was part of the Nehru Theatre festival in November 2007. Although APEKSHA could not be performed properly, owing to a logistical problem, the abridged production was one of the best plays of the Nehru festival. Bhagirathi, the leading actress of the theatre company was able to take charge and managed very well.
To appreciate AKASH one has to follow Assamese because the play is very dependent on humour that is language based. Following the hilarious story by the eminent writer and filmmaker- Bhabendra Nath Saikia, the play takes off from a letter that is dropped into a loving father�s hands, whose daughter is about to be married. The letter reveals the loose character of his would be son-in-law. The worried father is unable to sleep as he remembers all his own affairs of his younger days, before his marriage! All the while his wife slept next to him. She wakes up and consoles him that everything will be alright once the marriage is solemnized. The father is relieved for a while but very soon suspicions about his wife�s past creep up to him and plunge him in a deeper turmoil! Now all the humor is centered on the verbal action and reactions of the various characters that come alive from the past. Some of the key actions were of course loud and clear.
Although various aspects of the production were good, they did not become memorable for the want of understanding the language. Earlier Pina Bausch�s BAMBOO BLUES, which was part of the festival too, was far more accessible because of its visual, body language. But having said that the staging of AKASH was interesting. The action takes place on an open stage with just a door and window frames on one side. The packed furniture pieces serve different purposes. They may be looked upon as the customary dowry, and are instrumental in creating multiple locations such as a drawing-room and a train compartment. Thw window conveniently becomes a mirror and the space around the bed transforms into a courtyard when required. The same was the case with costumes. Without loosing any time and with minimal changes, the actors moved from the present to the past.
The open set however posed a challenge for lighting. The play takes place in a span of one night; the division of space helped the light design but the flashbacks did suffer to an extent. Sound design and music helped to create the required ambience. More than anything else it was the team of actors who did wonders with their flawless acting. The young girl�s awkwardness in expressing love, a married girl�s shrewdness in an attempt to save marriage or the family pride of an affluent girl were projected in monosyllabic and a matter of fact manner! The director in the lead role of the father gave a very good performance. If only one could have followed the language of the play...
*The writer is a senior theatre and television person who has trained under Ebrahim Alkazi at the National School of Drama (NSD). She has written for publications such as �The Asian Age� and is a regular contributor to the Prithvi Theatre Newsletter (PT Notes). She also offers theatre training to students at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is an important critical voice for the Gujarati Theatre.
