The Indian Avant-garde Theatre

A nice blend of tradition and modern aesthetics.

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Dr. Satyabrata Rout

The Performance tradition in ancient India:

There is a saying goes: “The countries heritage is not judged by its wealth but by its culture”. The overall progress of the country depends upon its age old tradition which develops into culture over the years. India being the ancient spiritual land became the torch bearer of this age old tradition, education and civilization of the world and remained inspiration for the people across the globe for centuries to come. Even also after centuries of turmoil, war and degeneration of human values, the fragrance of Indian culture and aesthetics has not been faded away with the wave of fake modernity, rather it has been expanded and extended into different socio-cultural mindsets and has influenced modernity in many ways. Our Natya shastra the ancient dramaturgy not only taught us to practice Natya (drama, dance and other allied performing arts), rather it opens our insight to understand life in different perspectives and angles. The high aesthetic value that Natya shastra has set is practiced globally as performance studies In these recent years. In a way the whole world is looking into Indian culture and accepted it respectfully.

Indian performance tradition and the ancient practice of drama in India which became the spinal cord of Natya shastra is always based on two strategy. 1: Vachana Parampara , 2: Stylization. Even after thousands of years of social cultural and economical changes and modernization our contemporary Indian theatre has retained its moral and aesthetic value and is known for these specific oriental characteristics. Much before the formal theatre practice was introduced in the form of classical drama, Katha Vachan tradition was highly popular in the Indian communities. A story was being told in the form of narration which was expressed through the body gestures and postures to a group of people who could also actively participated in the presentations time to time (They have been named as Rasika in Natya Shastra).With the help of music and rhythmic body movements and with the bits of percussions our Katha Vachana tradition remained as one of the unique presentation style which became the pioneer of the performance tradition of the oriental theatre. Even today the Vachana tradition can be traced out in many Indian traditional forms viz. Terukootu, Pandavani, Pala and Dashkathia etc.

Another major feature of Indian performance tradition is its way of presentation. Unlike western occidental culture Indian theatre never follows the linear movement of plot, action and time. The spatial and temporal relationship of the performance every time juxtaposed and interweaved during the performances. Shifting the action to past, future and again coming back to the present situation is the characteristic of Indian drama. The main plot gives rise to many sub plots and again merges down with the main action. To not to divert from the main stream of action, a unique character was introduced to the performance practice in the name of Sutradhara. Slowly with the passing of time this prototype character in the Indian performance tradition carried away the vital responsibility in the presentation. Not only it kept the storyline and action intact but also most of the visual imageries and the scenic elements are being narrated orally by this character so as to avoid the technical complications on stage. This made Indian theatre more lively and immediate. This instant live presentation of Indian theatre is unique in itself, specific and symbolic. With the help of Hasta mudras and Gati (Chari) the Indian actors were able to communicate the situation, environment and the characters they were portraying. This kind of representation of the action broke the boundary of realistic illustrations and able to enter into the world of metaphor and pave the way to stylization which turned out to be the synonym of Indian drama.

The classical Indian performance tradition met its end towards 9^th- 10^th Century. The reason was obvious. Apart from Socio-political factors, many other issues were responsible for the decline of Sanskrit drama; the major aspect was the language. Though Sanskrit was practiced in the official set up, most of the Indians preferred other dialects like Apavransh and Prakrit. Towards 11^th – 12^th Century many new Indian languages occupied the centre stage pushing aside Sanskrit to the background. These native languages were born out of the socio-cultural conditions and the geographical structures of the regions. Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Bengali, Hindi, Oriya, Ahamiya, Gujurati, Abadhi, Pahadi, Punjabi and many local dialectical languages were formed based on the native cultures. The artistic and cultural expressions became more and more predominant in their original mother languages. New art forms and different style of expressions were created out of the new tradition the country was passing through. These artistic expressions didn’t out rightly reject the ancient performance culture and its aesthetics rather the performance tradition which was set by centuries old practice was restructured, transformed and adapted into these new language based cultures which we know as the traditional Indian theatrical forms. Though these traditional forms were based on the rich heritage of Indian Classical theatre, it kept its contemporary value along with the present time. These forms are modified and restructured with the changing values of political, ideological, economical and cultural systems of the natives and the society. May it be the Jatra of Bengal and Orissa, Nautanki of Uttar Pradesh, Yakshgana of Karnataka, Dasavatari of Maharastra, Koodiyattam of Kerala, Bhand pathar of Kashmir or Bhavai of Gujrat, they have retained the classical tradition to some extent where as they are more flexible and contemporary. The specialty of narrative Indian theatre became the life line of these artistic expressions. The Sutradhara or Nata of Indian performance tradition found its way to these traditional forms to maintain the contemporary value of the performance. He worked as an intermediary between the performers and the audiences. We can mark their presence in different names in different traditional forms, viz: Niyati in Jatra, Rangila in Bhavai, Bhagwat in yakshgana, etc.

Another major issue that influenced our age old tradition is the foreign invasions into India. 11th – 16^th Century witnessed many foreign invaders from faraway lands into India to rule the country. They brought with them their tradition and culture which was mixed with our indigenous tradition and became the part of Indian culture. Similarly religion also played a vital role for the diversification of culture and became highly responsible to influence Indian performance tradition. Whatever may be the reason for the decline of Sanskrit drama and the origin of native theatre, the age old Indian aesthetics and presentation Style, set by Natya Shastra was so deeply rooted into our performance tradition that it became the characteristics of Indian drama; the stylization, metaphor and the narrative verses.

The Colonial and post colonial Indian Theatre:

Unfortunately no experimentation was done on these indigenous forms during the colonial India. Original Indian culture was diverted by imitating the British. The Indian elite and upper class people spent their money and energy by adapting the western modern culture. Speaking in English and adapting western culture became the fashion among those “Bhadra Samaj” (noble society) which is still continuing in India and became a parallel culture to ours. Shakespeare was introduced to Indians through the British and became more popular among those elite classes. The plays of Shakespeare, Moliere and some of the Indian plays written by the influence of these playwrights were widely presented in India particularly in the urban cities like, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. With the presentation of these plays Proscenium theatre was also crept in to our country. Play houses were built in those cities for privileged audiences and better presentations. At this turmoil point of time our culture was also politically manipulated by those “Bhadra Samaj” (elite class). A definite sect was created to witness the English-Indian plays which were in no ways related to our native culture. Our Indian traditional forms that born out of our own aesthetics and culture stayed remained isolated in the rural and village proximity and were practiced by the native people. Some of the forms couldn’t deal with the changing time thus faded away gradually like Moughl Tamasa, Dakshini nata of Orissa. That happened because of inattentiveness and negligence of the people and authority. Though efforts were given to bring out our rich heritage and performance culture to the lime light by Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) during the time of National movement, not much experimental work had been done in this regard until India’s independence. Still then IPTA movement holds the responsibility to bring out new meaning and contemporary values to our folk and traditional culture.

The age old tradition of the performance culture of India was evaluated in the light of modern aesthetics in the post-colonial period. The first seminar on theatre was organized in 1956 which was inaugurated by S Radhakrishnan, the then vice-president of India. As Aparna Bhargav Dharwadker rightly pointed out;

“The seminar was the first sustained exercise in historical self-positioning— an early postcolonial reflection on the singular problematic of a multilingual theatre tradition that had classical and pre-modern as well as colonial antecedents, the emergent modernity of which was synchronous with colonialism.”

The objective of the seminar was to conceive the future of Indian theatre as it should develop in independent India. It was formally recommended in the seminar that, the regeneration of the Indian theatre can only be possible by revitalizing the traditional and folk theatre so as to narrow the gap between the dramatic forms that have developed during the last hundred years and the survivals from the past. The Seminar recommends that adequate steps be taken not only for the careful and scientific study of the performance culture of the past in different parts of India but also for preventing their decay and disappearance and for giving them recognition and new life.[1]

During these fifty odd years after the seminar organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, plenty of experimental works have been undertaken to apply the classical, semi classical, folk and traditional forms into modern and contemporary theatre to give rise to an indigenous Indian theatre tradition which flourished and nourished during the second half of 20^th Century and became one of the major aspects of modern Indian theatre. The purpose of this new research on theatre methodology was not only to bring out our old and traditional heritage into practice, but also to focus on interweaving modern theatre aesthetics into the indigenous Indian sensibility so as to bring out new meaning and interpretation to the performance culture.

Theatre groups, directors, intellectuals and academicians came up with new ideas to reshape our aboriginal theatre in free India. Institutions, organizations and academies were established to initiate these research programmes as a mission. Playwrights came up with new ideas and plays. A kind of avant-garde theatre was established in modern India. Badal Sircar, Girish Karnad, Habib Tanveer, Vijay Tendulkar, Dharmaveer Bharati, Chandra Sekhar Khambar, Manoranjan Das, Sankar Shesh and many other playwrights wrote plays by blending Indian myths and folklores with modern sensibility. These Indian urban-folkloric plays were come up parallel to the modern realistic plays which were influenced by the western realism. This new genre of plays left tremendous scope for interpretation and experimentation which attracts the play directors to present in their own ways and styles.

Out of many objectives of this new research some major aspects are;

1. To understand the true Indian values and aesthetics.

2. To experiment with the traditional heritage of the particular region to bring out total aesthetic expressions.

3. Total experimentation with the native forms to interweave into the modern theatre sensibility.

4. The visual aesthetics and new experimentations in the light of tradition.

Among the directors and scholars who took initiatives to develop this new research into tradition are; Habib Tanveer, Kavalam Narayan Pannikar, B.V Karanth and Ratan Thiyam. They became the fore runner experimentalists to establish “Indian poetic realism”. Pannikar succeeded in re-establishing the age old Sanskrit drama and Classical Indian tradition by interpreting them in to modern contemporary sensibility. Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Theyaam, Kalaripaitu and many other traditional and semi-classical theatrical forms which were either losing their identity or isolating themselves from the society because of the changing time, found new meaning and existence in Panikkar’s productions. Panikkar’s experiment on Indian classical tradition revitalized the Sanskrit theatre. The ancient Indian playwrights came to the limelight with new interpretations by the effort of Panikkar. Bhasa, Kalidasa, Bhababhuti were revived and got new life because of his experimentation. Panikkar not only explored the possibilities of the forms, he gave new meaning to the language also i.e. Sanskrit. He opened the door to understand and re-interpret the true Indian value and its aesthetics.

Habib Tanveer did it in a completely different way. Unlike Pannikar, Habib Sahab experimented on Loka-Dharmi Rangmanch (Folkloric theatre). Vachana or narrative tradition of our Indian performance culture found its place in his works. That perhaps is the reason why Habib Tanveer’s production gives ample space to poetries (Shero-Shairi), songs and narrations. Being a playwright by himself Habib Tanveer explored all the possibilities of Chattishgari folk culture in his writings which becomes the lifeline of his productions. Deviating from the classical tradition, he came closure to the audience by breaking the convention of the performance space which made his production more flexible and contemporary. Irrespective of the social status, position and dramatic action, his characters speak the people’s language and dialects of the region he belonged to. I remember one of his productions of “Matigadi” (Mrichhakatikam) which was so carefully casted into his own style that it seemed to be more Habib than Shudrak. The purity of the Sanskrit language and its classical tradition in Mrichhakatikam was as it it transfermed into the purity and simplicity of Chhatishgadhi folkloric forms. The similar kind of experimentation is seen and sensed in all the major productions of Habib tanveer; Agra Bazar, Charan Das Chor, Hirma ki Amar Kahani, Gaonr nam…., Kamdev ka aapna…, Jin Lahor na Dekhya…, Dekh rehn hai nain…, Visarjan and others. Habib tanveer set the true examples of experimenting on the traditional heritage of the region in bringing out aesthetic expressions.

Another experimentalist of modern Indian theatre who left no stone altered in exploring his expressions through his creative genius ability is B.V Karanth. Total experiment with the native forms to interweave into the modern theatre sensibility is always credited to him only. Karanth broke all the rules, laws and pre conceived conventional dogmas of theatre and established the trend of true avant-garde Indian theatre. From south to north and east to west, he has travelled extensively to understand the inner and deeper meaning of Indian tradition and the theatrical expressions. Music was his weapon to achieve that idiom. He established many ideology and has pioneered new organizations including Bharat Bhawan Rangmandal, Rangayan etc, but left them after some time. Decentralization of theatre, applied theatre and children theatre was some of his creative contributions to Indian theatre. He always used to say, “I can’t stick to a particular kind of life for a longer time. I get bored at certain point. My throat choked and I long for fresh air. I can’t create any thing if I wouldn’t travel. I want to see the world, people, life, landscapes, mountains, temples, Mosques, gurudwara, Churches, tribes, rituals and everything that a man can see in his life time. I want to do mistakes and rectify it by my own experiences. I want to learn anything and everything that I could do”. He became a traveler throughout his life. He didn’t follow any particular style or form. Where ever he went he adapted the native forms and converted them into his own creations. The major segment of modern Indian theatre tradition; performance culture of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kashmir, Himachal, Rajasthan, Gujurat, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Manipur, Tripura and almost all the south Indian theatre practice was highly influenced by the style of Karanth; “the Karanth factor”. His eyes, ears, heart, mind and soul was transformed into a big truth of Theatre; “the holy theatre”. Practicing theatre was the greatest celebration for him and it reflects in every moment of his productions; the celebration of life; the Utsav dharmi tradition.

Much before the success of ‘Chakra Viyuha’ Ratan Thiyam, the master artiste of the North east hills has proved his genius in some of his earlier productions of Urubhangam, Andhayug and Imphal-Imphal. With the presentation of Chakra Viyuha he confirmed the sayings of Natya Shastra that; “There is no vocation, grammar, art, business and social studies left which is not found in Natya Shastra”. He incorporated all possible skills of art forms into his creations. Not only he adapted the oral tradition and culture of Manipur into his productions, he brought into his plays the scenic visuals and picturesque beauty of the north-east valley many time in many ways. The interplay of the colours of our community life plays a vital role in his productions. Be it Chakra Viyuha or Karna Bhare, Ritu Samhar or Uttar Priyadarshi, when we dead awaken, the colours of the island enhanced the aesthetic sensibility of his production which sometimes evaluate his productions as visual arts and paintings. This became possible because of his higher sensibility towards visual medium. Somehow Thiyam worked on the similar track as Panikkar did but in a different approach. His productions are highly stylized ritualistic and based on Natya Dharmi principles.

New Experimentations:

The ice has already broken by the able hands towards 70’s. New wave of theatre creates new air and oxidized Indian drama to set a new performance tradition. Many young and creative theatre activists came forward as second liner to carry out the Indian avant-garde theatre. During the year 1984 Central Sangeet Natak Akademi came up with a new project towards the experimentation with tradition in the name of “Assistance to young directors”. The project continued for 10 years and it proved to be the most successful affair in the history of Indian Drama. The purpose of this programme was to bring out young and aspiring talents to the frontier of modern theatre those who engaged themselves with the native traditional and folkloric forms. Indian regional and rural theatre was identified collectively. The possibilities and potentiality of these forms enriched our modern Indian theatre tradition. With few exceptions, all most all younger generation of artists, designers, actors and directors are the result of this project. Ironically Ratan Thiyam’s legendary production “Chakra viyuha” is the outcome of this project. Apart from Ratan Thiyam, Bansi Kaul, Bhanu Bharati, B. Jayasree, Alakh Nandan, Parvez Akhtar, Waman Kendre, Satyabrata Rout, Mustaq Kak, Manumita Baradi, Kewal Dhariwal, Vasaba Lingeya, K.G Krishnamurthi, Balwant Thakur, Suresh Sharma, Avtar Sahani, Ravikant Kamu, P.S Chari are few among the directors who have proved their potential ability with their path breaking productions and continuously employed themselves in the process of new experimentations. A list of their productions and the form in which they worked under the project is given bellow.

Name of the Directors	Name of the play	Language of performance	Presentational forms
Ratan Thiyam	Chakra Viyuha-1984	Manipuri	Manipuri Rasa and Thangta
Bansi Kaul	Ala Officer-1984	Hindi	Nata kala of Ujjain
Bhanu Bharati	Pashu Gayatri-1984	Rajasthani	Bhil tradition
B. Jayashree	LakshapatiRajarKatha 84	Kannada	Yakshagana
Alakhnandan	Chanda Bedhni-87	Bundeli	Bundeli folk tradition
Waman Kendre	Julwa-86	Marathi	Dasabatari and other folkloric tradition
Satyabrata Rout	Jhimiti Khela-88	Oriya	Chhau natya and Dashakathia.
Parvez Akhtar	Mukti purb-88	Bihari	Bidesia and other narrative forms
Mustaq Kak	Devyani	Dogri	Bhand Pather
Vasaba Lingeya	Kushum Bale	Kannada	Bhagwat tradition
Balwant Thakur	Baba Jito	Dogri	Traditional forms of Jammu
Nilammansingh Chaudhury	Raja Bharthari	Punjabi	Punjabi Folk
Suresh Sharma	Mohana	Himachali	Narrative tradition
Kewal Dhariwal	Luna	Punjabi	Khayal
Ravi Kemu	Uskite Gopayel	Kashmiri	Kashmir traditional
Avtar Sahani	Uljhan-92	Hindi	Local pahadi culture

Apart from this project there are few talented and creative directors who have done quite unique and experimental works and contributed to the main stream theatre in many ways. To name some of them are; Prasanna, H. Kanheyelal, Robin Das, Anamika Hakshar, Surya mohan Kulshretha, N.K Sharma, Arvind Guard, Bapi Bose, etc.

Post modernism in Indian Theatre:

Indian theatre has experienced its’ glorious phase with these creative and talented artistes and youngsters. These artistes were able to expand the horizon of modern Indian Theatre; the Indian avant- garde theatre. But with the advent of globalization and western post modernism, the form of Indian theatre has changed drastically during the last decade which becomes a matter of concern to decide the fate of futuristic Indian theatre. Indian performance tradition which finds its root from the age old ancient practice is losing its linking thread. The new wave of theatre which is spreading its air along with globalization is always welcome but not in the cost of social traditional and ethnic values which should be a serious matter of concern among the artistes, academicians, intellectuals and people.

(The postmodernism in Indian theatre could be another topic for debate which is deliberately not discussed in this essay.)

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(Dr. Satyabrata Rout is a contemporary theatre director, designer and a teacher working as an associate professor of Scenography in the Dept. of Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad. He is a theatre practitioner constantly engaged in this expression for the last two and half decades.)

© Important: The article is copyright reserved. Nobody should try to use full or part of this article without the permission of the author.

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[1] “Recommendations of the Drama Seminar,” Sangeet Natak 38.4 (2004), 128.

…And why it happens!

Dr. Satyabrata Rout 14.11.2010

We had our show of IPHIGENIA at Vrittyanam open air theatre and there was a power cut from the afternoon. We were in great tension. By the evening there was utter chaos in the green room as we couldn’t prepare ourselves for the show in time. Nobody had done their makeup, wear the costumes and arranged the property while the audiences were waiting in the gallery to witness the play. Finally we requested the audience to wait patiently till the lights come. This was a helpless moment that no one could do anything except waiting. Finally lights came at 7 pm. It wiped away all the depressions from us and we engaged in our preparation in hurry. We made an announcement to start the play within 15 minutes and thanked the audiences for their kind cooperation and patience. I informed my team to check their props, costumes and make up urgently and wait for the final bell. Then I rushed towards the lighting booth to start the show…Then I don’t know why, but my legs led me towards an unnoticed dark place back of the audience gallery which was not the way to the lighting cabin. Before I could understand why I went there at this crucial moment of time where we are already late for more than half an hour, I hit upon an object and fall down. In the complete darkness I found that object is nothing but a wooden block which is used in the play as an important property lying abandon here. “It must have been left behind from the previous day after the show was over. What could happen without this object which fulfills many actions during the show?” I thought. I picked it up and kept it on its place and started the play.

The show went on but at every moment I was thinking of the incident. Many unsolved questions started disturbing me related to this topic. Why I went there while that was not my way to the lighting cabin? More over it was not the proper time to go there at this crucial moment. Did I hear an inner voice of that object calling me? Or it is telepathy? Is it my intimate and honest association with the medium that made it possible? I couldn’t find any logic to that. I got emotional and tears rolled down from my eyes. Yes! This is nothing but pure love in between me and my medium. Be it props, costumes, set or lights, be that animate or inanimate; love always bounces back. Sometimes it remains beyond logic.

Theatre, which is my first love, pays me back everything in double. The respect, love affection and intimacy, I got through the medium remain the biggest asset for me which can’t be compared with money and wealth. During my freelancing days I spent numerous chilled nights covering myself with wings and borders inside the auditoriums, wiped out my tears on the curtains and cyclorama in the hour of my frustrations. Sitting alone in the rehearsal hall I have waited hours for my actors. Painted the sets and hanged the lights without sleeping for continuous nights. Then how could the medium betray me?

Perhaps these are the reasons why I heard the inner voice of that wooden block lying abandon alone at the back of the audience gallery, crying for help…!

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Dr.Satyabrata Rout

Dr.Satyabrata Rout

Vrittayanam

Now we can say we have Vrittayanam with us.

Dr. Satyabrata Rout

Life without air, Fish without water and Theatre without a performance space! As oxygen is essential to live, a space is important for a Theatrewala (Ranga karmi). Unfortunately we didn’t have one. When I joined the Theatre Department at the University of Hyderabad, I was astonished to find no proper space for the performance. Usually the student performances were held at the DST (Dept. of Science and Technology) auditorium which was primarily constructed for conferences and meetings. It is a luxurious air conditioned auditorium without a proper stage. It has a narrow and long dais hardly any wing space and lighting grids. Presenting a play at DST means having spoiling the show. We had another space, the famous G.B Hall. It is also not appropriate for all kind of performances. It is a close hall used for our acting classes. When I joined in this department, I felt it necessary to improvise a space for performances and scene works. I kept on looking in the surrounding until I found an area adjacent to our old S.N School building. With the help of Prof. Bhikshu we developed two shades there for design practice and created a small space yard for performances. It was environmental friendly and surrounded by lots of trees and greeneries. It was a nice performance place but totally informal and improvised. My students developed a small garden around and we called it “Udyaana Rangam”. It came up in December 2007. Many class room exercises, scene works and major departmental productions were presented in this space. King Oedipus, Hayavadan, Antigone, A Caucasian Chalk Circle and so many student productions were produced here. Then came Robin Das, the famous visualizer of Indian theatre. He also found a space nearby our old dept. for his scene works. But regretfully as soon as we moved to our new campus we couldn’t able to take care of these spaces. Slowly the forest engulfed them.

Our new SN School campus definitely is a gorgeous and beautiful complex that no Indian University has acquired. Here we have everything but a performance space. We have ac staff rooms, practice halls, studios,nice and decorative class rooms but no auditorium. I felt frustrated after having shifted to this new building. What shall I do with these ac rooms and corporate infrastructures while we don’t have a proper space to practice with my students?

By this time I have been assigned by my department to direct a Greek play with our 2^nd year students. Our first year students were also engaged in a Parsi play “Rustam O’ Sohrab” under the guidance of Kanheya lal Kethwas from NSD. I choose Euripides’s “Iphigenia”. But where to present these plays? In the beginning we planned to present these plays at G.B Hall. But that was also occupied by our third year students. They were practicing a realistic play with Prof. Bhikshu. So we did not have any virtual space to present our plays. Having no space to perform we planned to improvise another space somewhere around. We found one. I designed my play accordingly. Initially I planned to use our platforms to erect a stage there. But came to know that they were already been utilized by our Third year students for their play in G.B Hall. Now I have no choice. I got upset and thought to convert the show into demonstration. Kanheya also planned to culminate his work as a class room exercise. By that time one of my students, Govind Raju did a design scene work in a place behind our new campus adjacent to a wall corner. By seeing his work an idea clicked in my mind. “Why can’t I construct a permanent structure here in this particular place as our performance space? This could be a nice place for a stage”. Surrounded by lots of greeneries on one side and the latterite wall corner on the back, the space impressed me for a suitable mini open air auditorium technically as well as artistically. I decided to construct an environmental friendly permanent performance space there.

Financial constrain was the major hindrance for this artistic creation. There was absolutely no money to build an infrastructure in the University system. Our head Prof. Anant Krishnan showed his inability for any financial help but assured to help us later. But there is a saying goes, “Where there is a will, there is a way”. One of my students Amit Roshan contributed some money for the cement and sands. I purchased stones and the construction work started. Prof. Ananth Krishnan perhaps observed the good will of our students for this creative work and agreed to spend some money from our production budget. Initially there was no proper lay out plan except a vague idea of a circular space. Gradually during the process of construction ideas were kept on adding and finally it was ready somehow for the shows, our “VRITTAYANAM”; The circular performance space.

Sitting on a chair in the audience gallery yesterday I was watching our inaugural show “Rustam O’Sohrab” in my dream space “Vrittayanam”. Tears rolled down in my eyes with the first entry of the actors. I was recalling the days when we were desperately longing for a performance space month ago. Now my students will learn the fundamentals of acting and design. They can prepare their scene works here. It will be their personal working space. No University has such an actor’s friendly performance space that we have here in our department at Hyderabad University. We can do miracles. But we are on the mid way. We require funds to retain the stage and the gallery. I don’t know from where we get it! But my inner voice always responds from my within, “The dreams are always fulfilled”.

This is a purely my personal experience which I need to share with everybody.

I am thankful to all my faculty, my Head Prof. Ananth Krishnan and above all the Theatre art students and specially Kanheya Lal Kethwas whose physical contribution and labour made it possible.

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Dr. Satyabrata Rout/29^th October, 2010/Hyderabad University.

You don’t need a space to tell the story;

Third Theatre from academics to practice.

Dr. Satyabrata Rout

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I read a story somewhere. “Four intellectual scholars were going near by a river while they saw a man drowning. He was screaming for help. These four intellectuals heard the scream and ran towards the river bank. They tried to find a means to rescue the helpless man. They started discussions and plundered the books to find out a mean to rescue this helpless man. In this way they engaged in debates. The drowning man was continuously crying for help. A farmer who was grazing his cows in the nearby field heard the screem and immediately jumped in to the river and dragged that drowning man to the bank. When these four scholars came out with a solution the man had already gone home”. What I mean to say through the story is that our knowledge should be practice oriented. We must apply our academics with our experiences to find out a solution to the problem.

While working with Badal Sircar 30 years ago, I found him more academic so as his concept of “Third Theatre”. Perhaps that happened because of my limited and confined knowledge of theatre during that period. By that time Badal Sircar had already written a number of plays and was enjoying the merit of an intellectual modern Indian playwright. His most popular and path breaking play “Evam Indrajit” had already acclaimed as one of the most important Indian plays and was bestowed with Sahitya Akademi award. Many important Indian directors had already experimented with this play including B.V Karanth and Badal Sircar himself. By then he had already came up with his new intellectual concept “The Third Theatre”. But I did not quite agree with his working method.

He was invited to work with us when I was a student of 2^nd year NSD. He had just finished writing “Basi Khabor” (Old news) and wanted to present it with us. Before approaching to the play we had to undergo a rigorous process through a workshop based on his theory. It seemed very difficult for all of my batch mates to digest a new concept much different than the kind of drama we had practiced previously. Some of my class mates did not attend the workshop by giving different reasons. But I know why they have quitted. It was the time of exploration to a new kind of theatre. Badal da explained us the meaning of Third Theatre.

“There are two types of theatre exist in India. 1. The conventional theatre (Practiced in Maharastra, West Bengle, Orissa and other parts of India). 2. Folk and traditional theatre (India is enriched with this cultural heritage). Third theatre is a kind of theatre which did not reject the 1^st and 2^nd one completely, rather barrowed the spirit of the high- emotions from the conventional drama and improvisational ability from the folk and traditional theatre. It adapts the flexibility of peoples’ theatre and the audience participation. With the amalgamation of these two kinds of Indian theatre, the Third Theatre is born”.

His actors never require a conventional space, a typical scenic design and lights to present the shows. They can perform any where, even in the audience gallery. They can directly establish communication with the audiences and talk to them. Badal da rejected all the technicalities including spot lights, properties; make up and a specific stage to present his play Basi Khabar with us. As I recall; we performed the play in the passage in between the audiences inside the circulation unit at NSD; now known as studio no-1. The auditorium light went on glowing throughout the show, to mark the presence of the audience and to establish their active participations. Towards the end the actors talked directly to the audiences with tears in their eyes; “Jara sochie…. (Just think). The play was followed up with a discussion among actors, Badal Sircar and the audiences.

It was a wonderful experience for all of us. But I couldn’t understand the relevancy of this kind of theatre at that particular time period. For me, it was over dramatic. It might enhance my academic knowledge but in no way it will help in my practice. It was just an Indian version of Grotowski’s “The poor theatre” and nothing more than that. For me theatre was something different. Idealistic thoughts, beautiful designs, spot lights, characters with suitable costumes and make up completes a drama. Why to involve the audiences in our personal affairs? Let them watch a play and appreciate. It would become cruelty to make the audience involve actively in the production. The audience should be a passive observer but should not be an active member in a presentation. These were the reasons of my resentment for Badal Sircar and his working method at that particular juncture of time.

Slowly and steadily with continuous practice in the medium, I have to undergo with many kinds of performance styles. I faced different types of problems and tried to find immediate solutions to them. Sometimes I succeeded and many times failed. Working with different directors, artistes, theatre groups in different situations I got answers to many unsolved questions which troubled me during my student career. Still then I couldn’t agree with Badal sircar’s kind of theatre and perhaps that was the reason why I didn’t attempt his plays till I did “Evam Indrajit” recently.

I have my own reasons of doing “Evam Indrajit” after so many years of its creation. First of all I wanted a change for myself. I wanted to come out of my own spell; my own method which can found its root in Karanth, Habib and Ratan Thiyam’s working process. If somebody has ever seen any of my productions can very well understand the style I adapted in my presentations. Be it Passa, Nagamandal, Baji, Orubhangam, Rashomon or Karna Katha; the visual imageries and the exploration of spatial compositions provide maximum aesthetic experiences to the viewers in my plays which remain the most important dominating factors in my productions. The physical idioms of the actors along with the visual expressions of the scenography (Set, Mask, Props, Costume, etc.) every time become the driving forces of my productions. The reason is obvious. My working knowledge on the Mayurbhanj Chhau dance and my sensibility towards visual designs take the leading part in my creation which is purely Oriental and Indian from its foundation. In addition to it by assisting B.V Karanth for a longer span of time (more than 20 years) I imbibed an artitude towards music and rhythm which also become an integral part of my productions. That may be the cause of my initial resentment towards the “Third Theatre”.

That does not mean that I am too much stubborn and rigid to appreciate other forms. Many times my illusion has broken in many ways during my journey in to theatre. I have seen the horrified death of Safdar Hasmi in the midst of a street play in a suburban locality at Sahibabad near Delhi. That very moment I questioned myself, “Is theatre so powerful that it can lead to mass violence?” It was an extreme example of “Theatre of impact”. For the first time Badal da seemed relevant to me. After the Bhopal gas disaster, Ms. Tripurari Sharma wrote a play “Banj Ghati” (The barren Island) which was produced by Rangmandal, Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal, with all amenities and facilities. But unfortunately it was rejected by the native audiences where as we got appreciation in other parts of India. It disturbed me mentally. “Why it got rejection in Bhopal while we have tried our best to make the play as authentic as it could be nearer to the human tragedy? We have done thorough research and gathered references from the localities that were highly affected by the Union Carbide Gas. Our presentations were also genuine.”… I got the answer from my within… “No art is bigger than human experiences. It falls shorter against our own life”. That was the reason why the people of Bhopal rejected our production where as it was accepted in other cities. The people of Bhopal have experienced the tragedy physically and mentally. They don’t want to watch a play born out of their tragedy in which they just became the passive audiences. That was the day when Badal Sircar again became closure to me through his words “the audience participation”. In the year 1996 I conducted a theatre workshop with the actors of Voice of Maldives at Male Island. To my utter astonishment 75 percent of the participants presented the same story, “Three days captivation under the Srilankan Army”, in an improvisation given to them. The reason was very clear. The native people of Maldives have undergone a mass tragedy in the recent years that was still haunting their psyche which reflects in every human action, even in a small improvisation. Working with Barry John in the TIE (Theatre in Education) company of National School of Drama during early 90s I was exposed to school children in different levels. From posh Delhi Modern School to the Dipalaya society and Government schools at Govindpuri in west Delhi slums, I had the opportunity to interact with students of different socio-economical backgrounds with varied mental and psychological ability. I have got the privilege to work with mentally retired and physically challenged children. Ultimately what I found was that, “Theatre is not only a mere means of telling a story to a group of people rather it carries a huge load of responsibility towards the social reformation, human values and identity. It could be the best way to educate people and above all it can be used as a medium to recognize one’s own self. Now I realized why Badal Sircar was so much concerned for the true human values which he had tried with us 30 years ago. I felt guilty for not understanding this great personality whose heart was thrubbing for the people and society long ago.

India has experienced a drastic change in the human values during the 1^st decade of 21^st Century. Our life style has changed. Political, social and economical factors have revolutionized radically. Globalization is responsible for all shot of transforms. The age old traditional Indian value has paved the way to enter into the modern Mall-culture. Living in present became the modern day’s philosophy. The thoughts of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel left behind as yester year’s story. In this cutting age of time we all are undergoing the changes which start from our home to the public sectors. Unlike the past, Indian youth is not struggling for a secured job in government sectors. There are many opportunities lying before him. The focus of life has shifted leaving no room for stability and self realization. In a way our 21^st century generation is misguided and delusioned by the hex of Globalization. Badal Sarcar’s “Evam Indrajit” targeted to a bunch of Indian youths and their tryit with destiny. Our cutting age Indrajit surrendered all his ideologies and thoughts in front of the globalization. He let himself flow with the flow of the time and compromised with the situation. He left for America to study Software engineering and came back to India to work in a Multinational Company at Hyderabad like a machine, working with machines.

While working with my students in different situations, observing my children at home, seeing young and aspirant youths working in MNCs and other private sectors, I felt the necessity to react against a defocused modern society which gave me the impulse to undertake “Indrajit”as my mission project. The script required lots of modifications and amendments to bring out the contemporary value. Evam Indrajit was written in late 60s and it was the demand of time for that period which forced Badal Sircar to script this play. But now the situation is different. We have many opportunities and avenues lying in front of us. But what are the qualities and moral standards of these opportunities? As I said earlier diversification and degeneration of human value crept into our nerves. Our society is becoming defocused. We don’t have time for ourselves what to talk of others? A new conceptual script was created out of Badal Sircar’s play keeping the demand of the contemporary time.

The production was prepared for an arena kind of theatre with audiences sitting on three sides to watch the play. I tried to bring the third theatre elements in to the production but couldn’t fully concur with Badal Sircar’s philosophy in the beginning days of our rehearsals. We did not want to involve our audiences in an active participation as is the prime goal of Third Theatre. But slowly we came under the spell of Badal Sircar. Our actors made the audiences involve in the presentation which opened new horizon for interpretations. The performance area was slowly extended into the auditorium leaving behind the conventional space, primarily used by the actors. Each performances left behind one memorable event which is added to our life’s experiences. The theoretical concept led by Badal da on his Third Theatre which was immaterial for me for the last 30 years became the spinal cord of the production. By practicing on the floor I tried to understand the meaning of his concept.

Something happened to us in our recent show at Lamakaan open air theatre that enforced us to adapt a true kind of Third Theatre and made us aware of the fact that Theatre always remain in practice and not in academic activities like the story of those four scholars I naratted in the beginning. Presence of mind, dealing with the situations, improvisational ability would help you to deal with the conditions but not the bookish knowledge of academics.

We had the show of “Evam Indrajit” at Lamakaan theatre which is not a conventional space rather an improvised open air suitable for certain kinds of experimental works. With an audience capacity of 150 this place provides a lovely environment for small kind intimate theatre. On 26^th September, 2010 we were expecting a good number of audiences for our show because of Sunday. The sky was clear and there was no trash of rain. But around 6 pm the weather changed and clouds clotted in the sky with thunders and lighting. We got disheartened. By the time we start the show the weather situation became worse. We opened the show with 60 odd numbers of audiences. Just after 10 minutes of the show begun, rain started pouring in and lights went out. Since Lamakaan has no generator facilities we couldn’t pull up with the show further. I requested the audiences to wait for few minutes till the electricity comes. But it was raining and the audiences had already started moving here and there… some of my theatre colleagues advised me to stop the show and request the audiences to leave. Some also suggested me to wait for few more minutes. But it was getting late and there was little chance of electricity. Ultimately we decided to stop the show. I approached the audiences to leave and take back their ticket money. They were almost wet and leaning against the walls to get rid of the rain. Perhaps they did not want to leave without seeing this play. Someone from the audience gallery proposed me, “Why don’t we run the show up stair in the cafeteria”? But our actors became hesitant to present the performance there. It was a small hall filled with chairs and tables. Even if we clear ever thing and arrange it for the show it can at best accommodate 30 people properly. Moreover our well designed play would be spoiled because of the lack of suitable space. Before I could take any decision I found the audiences getting them adjusted into that small confined hall leaving no other option for us but to perform. Within seconds we mentally prepared to present the rest of the play in that cafeteria in the up stair. I instructed my actors to forget the set design, definite entry and exit points etc. while playing. The only thing that could save us from this disaster is the total conviction of the characters we were portraying. At the same time we have to create an emotional bond with the audiences by sharing their positive energies. I advised to keep control over our voices since it was a small, close chamber and not the open air.

There was a challenge lying in front of us. Presence of mind and the ability of improvisation what we have learn from our life will help us to overcome the situation. When we went up stair it was jam packed with people hardly leaving any space for us to perform. Interestingly some of the audiences were holding candles in their hands ready to watch the show. We requested them to give us a little space so that we can arrange our things to perform. Believe me we share a space with the public which was not even enough for a solo presentation. We put candles here and there just to have some lights and continued with our play. We improvised and reshaped the production during the presentation. There were moments where it could become difficult to distinguish the audiences from the actors. There were complete participations and intimacy among both the teams (the audiences and actors), much needed for this kind of play “ Evam Indrajit” as conceptualized by Badal Sircar in his “Third Theate”. The play ended with a different note than usual. It was a new test which we shared that day with the audiences. One of the audiences passed a jock at the end of the play, “You don’t need even a space to tell the story!”

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Dr.Satyabrata Rout/Dept. of Theatre Arts/SN School/University of Hyderabad/India