EVAM INDRAJIT

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

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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

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