More to the drama

Today is World Theatre Day. A weekly play, regular theatre fests, street plays…the city sets a vibrant space for world class theatre.

March 26, 2015 08:52 pm | Updated 08:52 pm IST

COIMBATORE, 11/12/2010: A scene from 'Miss Meena' by the Chennai-based group, Perch, at 'The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Fest 2010' in Coimbatore on December 11, 2010. 
Photo: K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE, 11/12/2010: A scene from 'Miss Meena' by the Chennai-based group, Perch, at 'The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Fest 2010' in Coimbatore on December 11, 2010. Photo: K. Ananthan

“Actually there is nothing that can reveal hidden passions better than the theatre.… It is that kind of theatre, one which is grounded in truth and which finds its end in the inexplicable that I wish for all its workers, those on the stage and those in the audience…,” says Polish theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowski in his World Theatre Day 2015 message.

The message is relevant to Kerala, which has seen a resurgence in theatre in the past few years. In Kochi, the number of venues has increased and recent festivals have seen impressive turnout.

“Ours is a theatre born out of passion. There are no formal theatre companies like the ones in other States. So the plays staged in Kerala are different in treatment and expression. I am not talking about professional drama troupes here,” says theatre actor and director Ramesh Varma.

“The street theatre festival that Kochi hosted last year and a theatre festival by Ekaharya were received well. This shows that the interest in theatre is alive,” he adds.

The idea of participatory citizenship that reflects in the theatre of the times has perhaps helped bring the youth back to theatre, says Abhilash Pillai, theatre director, assistant professor at the National School of Drama (NSD) and director of the Ekaharya theatre festival. “Theatre has always been about this idea—hearing the voices of the unheard. This is an age where even the running of the government is becoming participatory (Aam Aadmi Party).”

The emergence of realistic themes that the common man could relate to could also have contributed to its appeal. The Cultural Ministry in the 1960s had encouraged theatre professionals to go back to their roots and find their feet in Indianness. However, by liberalisation in the 1990s, things changed. “Globalisation and corporatisation brought among other things, technology into daily life. There was easy accessibility and validation of technology,” says Abhilash, whose plays are acclaimed for their experimental nature.

Veterans such as Kumara Varma, however, wonder whether today’s theatre does address the many issues in society? “Theatre should be for the betterment of society. What sort of stance should we take? These are important questions; we should not just have experimental theatre for the sake of experiment. We cannot copy things without knowing their essence,” he says.

Varma was actively involved in the Natakakalari movement (New-theatre Movement) in Kerala, organising workshops and directing plays in collaboration with playwrights such as C. N. Srikanthan Nair, G. Sankara Pillai and Kavalam Narayana Panikkar. “I think that it is the playwright or the director who gives the “idea” for the play. We now focus more on experiment and forget the content. Internationally, too theatre should focus on lives and society and not be merely experimental.”

R.V. Vasudevan, chief co-ordinator of Ekaharya Festival, says modern-day innovations have only helped uplift theatre. Ekaharya itself was a festival that focussed on the ‘performer’.

“The huge turnout was encouraging,” he says. “The visual language has changed today. There are projectors, lapel mikes, subtitles in plays now. As long as theatre remains within its framework, it is a joy to watch,” he says.

According to Abhilash, theatre in Kerala is regarded important and different in the Indian theatre scene as it addresses wider and broader questions. “The theatre culture of Kerala is more open to larger collaborative processes. The high literacy, the influence of tourism, could all be factors leading to this,” he says.

Though Abhilash himself does not completely support globalisation, he says, the success of theatre in Kerala has been that it has taken advantage of it and looked at it critically and analytically. “We have not been blindfolded by technology and our theatre has critically intervened into global culture.”

The history of theatre in Kerala is a colourful one which accommodated the traditional, the experimental and the amateur. Kochi had its first taste of a permanent English theatre when the Little Theatre kicked off in 1989. For nearly five years it brought to the city some fine English plays. Top notch film directors of today Shyamaprasad and V.K. Prakash made ingenious stage adaptations of Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words and Woody Allen’s Death among the other plays staged by Little Theatre.

Then for about 10 years, till 2004, Little Theatre went into silent mode. “Most of us involved with the theatre went abroad and this hit its activities. In 2004 we revived it with the production of the African play The Mobile Grave . We have plans for a new production and other allied activities for the next year,” says theatre enthusiast and English professor at Sacred Heart College, C.S. Francis.

Over the past couple of years, the stage has expanded in the city. The Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi has been staging a play every Thursday at the Kerala Fine Arts Hall, as part of its ‘week day drama’ initiative, for a year now.

Since 2011, The Hindu Theatre fest has brought in a selection of English plays from across the country and abroad, JT Pac has played its part by staging English, Hindi and other regional language plays. Changampuzha Park has been a regular venue for plays and workshops. The Kerala Art and History Museum at Edappally has an amphitheatre, which has staged a number of plays in English and Hindi. The Museum festival also has a dedicated slot for theatre.

However, we need more spaces for permanent theatre. “It has to be more organised, whether it is production or in creating a permanent space for it,” says Ramesh Varma.

( With inputs from K.Pradeep and Priyadershini S .)

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