A Classic written by Indian Playwright Badal Sircar
Translation from Bengali to Hindi: Dr. Pratibha Agrawal
Scenography and Direction: Satyabrata Rout
Presented by Avartan Theatre, Hyderabad, India
_________________________________________________________________
To watch the play click on the link below:
EVAM INDRAJIT-Clip-1
EVAM INDRAJIT- Clip-2
AAvartan Theatre Ensamble
Theatre,
being a collaborative medium of art, needs certain amount of dedication and
commitment. Avartan, is an amalgamation artistes, intellectuals,
scholars and teachers from various discipline of study, with definite
objectives to reach to the diversified cultures, people and communities. Most
of our members are from academic community of University of Hyderabad which
includes students, academocians and practitioners.While working in an academic
environment, we realized the need to break the elitist tag, often labeled on
the performing arts, particularly in theatre. The group has tried to
break-through the conventions of theatre pedagogy, in order to reach to the
common mass, to make him/ her aware of his/her responsibility in today’s
society. Understanding the fact that our time and society is being reflected
directly through this art, we formed the group with a definite sense of
commitment. Our group aims to achieve professionalism, perfection and to break
the dogmas of conventions, that drags our society towards conservatism, an
obstacle to progress in all sense.
Synopsis
Evam Indrajit
speaks of our contemporary world; youth in particular. Today, where everything
has become materialistic, the youth, is losing its focus and drifting towards
the less important in life. Consequently, the human in us is being
replaced by machine, and life becomes a mere existence. This machine-
like existence acts as an octopus, that is spreading its tentacles everywhere,
creeping up the humanity; the reason why we lose our existence, identity and
emotions. Indrajeet tries to
seek the answers to these fundamental questions: “Who am I?”,
“What am I?” and “Why am I?” The protagonist wants to break the walls
of fundamentalism, and tries to establish an idealistic society, that can
liberate us from the shackles of age-long customs and laws.
Written in
the early seventies, “…Evam
Indrajit” is regarded as the first Indian absurd drama, which follows
the principles of existentialism, a trend set by the ideas of western
philosophers and authors like Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, and Jean Paul
Sartre. The meaninglessness of life somehow reflects in the total production
and questions our whole existence of life. To make the play relevant to the
contemporary global times,, we have taken the liberty to change, alter and
redefine the struction of this unique creation without distorting the central
idea of the author. The treatment of the production is humerous, satirical,
caricaturist and at the same time absurd.
The Playwright
Badal Sircar is one of the leading contemporary Indian playwrights, known for creating myth out of the common social characters and ordinary life situations. The conventional boundaries between the actors and the audience are deliberately broken from time to time in his plays. The logistic concept of time and space is jumbled up to create an aura of absurdity of life, as seen in most of his plays, viz. …Evam Indrajeet, Pagla Ghoda, Saari Raat, Ant Nahin, Julus, Bhoma and Basi Khabar etc. Apart from being a playwright, he is also a known poet, thinker who has significantly contributed to Bengali literature. A town planning engineer by profession, Badal Sircar developed a passion to understand various aspects of theatre, particularly in performance studies and became a student of Zerji Grotowski, the legendary theatre philosopher of Poland. Inspired by the vision of Grotowski, he authored his first conceptual book “The Third Theatre”. The book throws lights on contemporary Indian drama and its presentation, living behind conventional and folk theatre. All his writings follow his own philosophy of life and thoughts, which starts with his play “…Evam Indrajeet”.
The Director
Satyabrata
Rout is a known name in the contemporary Indian theatre scenario. A graduate
from the National School of Drama with specialization in Design and Direction
(1983), he worked as a Technical Director with Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal, for five
years and then returned to NSD where he was associated in different capacities,
first with the Theatre-in-Education project, then as a resource person for
extension programme; and finally as lecturer in lighting. He joined as an
Associate Professor in Design, at the University of Hyderabad in the year 2007.
Having a wide range of work experience with eminent personalities and directors
from India and abroad, his production bear his individual testimony and
personal imprint. As a contemporary Designer and Director, Rout, has done
rigorous research and also practiced the traditional form of Orissa, “Chhau”
which reflects in his productions, “Passa”, “Rashomon”, “Urubhangam”,
“Nagamandal”, HayaVadan”, “A Midsummer Nights’ Dream”, “Karna Katha”, etc. He
has a long association with the legendary theatre philosopher, Sri B.V Karanth
and has done his Ph.D on the thoughts and concept of B.V Karanth. A recipient
of several fellowships and awards, he has been conferred with Manoher Singh
Smriti Samman for his contribution to modern theatre movement, by the
Government of India in 2006. Sri Rout is a visiting Professor to many foreign
Universities and institution, such as International School of Bio-drama, Bogota
Colombia and East 15 Acting School, University of Essex, UK, etc.
Cast
Indrajeet: Ashish Shukla
Mansi: Kiran Khoje
Amal: Avdhesh Jha
Bimal: Vasudev V. A
Kamal: Mathew Sinu
Writer: Satyabrata Rout
Mausi/
Boss: Kavita Abichandani
Patni /
Mansi-2: Astha Mishra
Credit
Set and
Props:
Vasudev VA, Methew
Costume
Avadhesh Jha, Astha Mishra
Music
Krishna Soni
Light
Design:
Raghav Prakash
Mishra
Assistant Designer:
Smruti Ranjan Biswal/
Rajanish Sharma
Stage
Manager:
Rajeshwar B
Assistant
Director/Prod.
Controller:
Krishna Soni
Original
Bengali Play by:
Badal Sircar
Hindi
translation
Dr
Pratibha Agrawal
Advisor
Mrs.Mitanjali Rout
The play
is devised and directed by:
Satyabrata Rout
Associate Professor Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad
____________________________________________
