Dr.Satyabrata Rout: November 2013

GODOT AAYA KYA?

Hindi adaptation of

Waiting for Godot

A play in two act by:

Samuel Beckett

Adaptation,

Scenography,

And Direction:

Satyabrata Rout

Produced by Rangakalpa Hyderabad, India.

This Hindi adaptation of the world classic play “Waiting for Godot” was originally written in French by the Irish born playwright Samuel Beckett, which has succeeded in establishing the trend of Theatre of Absurd in the world of dramatic literature.

Rangakalpa:

Rangakalpa, is an amalgamation of diverse minds of people from various walks of life with definite objectives to reach to the various cultures, people and communities. Working in an academic environment, I realized the need to break the elitist tag, often labeled on the performing arts, particularly in theatre and our group has tried to break-through the conventions of theatre academics, in order to reach to the common man, 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, Rangakalpa definitely works with a sense of commitment. Our aim is to achieve perfection and to break the dogmas of conventions, that drags our society towards conservatism, an obstacle to progress in all sense.

The Play:

Two people are waiting for Godot by a tree on a countryside road. They wait, wait and wait.... and the play ends. It ends in nothingness living on a chance whether Godot will come on the next day....

The play speaks nothing, nor does it pass any social moral value... But within that nothingness many truths of our life unfold. Like Vladimir and Estragon, we all are waiting; for the reason unknown to us, living on a chance only, otherwise we cannot live.

This Hindi version of Waiting for Godot redefines the significance of human existence and tries to search for a deeper meaning of life.

Our production gives emphasis on the hidden layers of human relationship and tries to search for a Godot who is nowhere but within our own self.. The adaptation focuses on the Indian mindset, for which lot of changes has been done with the characters & the storyline.

The purpose of human life is an unanswerable question. It seems impossible to find an answer because we don't know where to begin looking or whom to ask. Existence, to us, seems to be something imposed upon us by an unknown force. There is no apparent meaning to it, and yet we suffer as a result of it. The world seems utterly chaotic.

We therefore try to impose meaning on it through pattern and fabricated purposes to distract ourselves from the fact that our situation is hopelessly unfathomable.

"Waiting for Godot" is a play that captures this feeling and view of the world, and characterises it with archetypes that symbolise humanity and its behaviour when faced with this knowledge.

Samuel Beckett: The Playwright

Samuel Beckett, an avant-garde playwright, poet and novelist was born in Ireland in the year 1906. He wrote plays both in English and French languages. Almost all his works move around the meaninglessness of life and the significance of human existence which offer a tragicomic outlook from the outer structure on human culture, often termed as black comedy. Beckett is widely regarded as the most influential writers of the 20th century and considered as the father of postmodernism in dramatic literature. He is one of the prominent writers whose writings contribute to the concept of Theatre of the Absurd. Beckett was awarded Nobel Prize in 1969 in literature. He died in the year 1989.

Satyabrata Rout: The Director/Scenographer

Satyabrata Rout is a known name in the contemporary Indian theatre. 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 Scenography, 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 productions 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, Evam Indrajit, Iphigenia, 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 theories of 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. His recent plays Matte Eklavya bagged the best play of 2013, which conferred him with the Best-Director award by META (Mahindra and Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Award). Recently he has directed Nagamandala and Urubhangam in English for the students of East 15 Acting School at University of Essex, England. He has written books on theatre which includes; On the crossroads of Theatre and Space, Performances, Developing Design: An Indian Perspective. Presently he is doing an academic research on “New Direction Theory in Indian Theatre”.