Towards the end of the Bharangam, there were some very interestig plays. The Wild from Walkabout Theatre Company, USA, directed by Thom Pasculli was an hour of extremes in physical theatre, inspired by the myth of dinosysus and the pursuit of ecstatic ritual. The performance begins with a mysterious gathering of creatures inhabiting darkened corners of the theatre space. After a while, the creatures disappear and people emerge in song and dance to enact the powerful physical interpretation of the Bacchae. The world then transforms into a tropical terrace where people become the aristocratic rulers of a foreign land and reveal their sophisticated savagery. Soon the glamorous construct of the upper class begins to crack open and crumble. Through a deep self-examination, dynamic movement, visceral action and a deep commitment to each other, Walkabout has developed a unique foundational performance practice and ensemble culture that connects us to the work of those in the past to better orient us to the present. With an ensemble of 10 multi-disciplinary artists, Walkabout is a unique example of laboratory theatre in Chicago.
The director has trained at the Odin Theatre in Denmark and the Growtoski Institute in Poland. As co-artistic director of Walkabout theatre, he specialises in developing physical and laboratory theatre. He specialises in actor training and exchange. The Wild examines what happens to people when institutions crumble and deities fail to show up. It was a marvellous production of physical and aesthetic theatre with the actors completely at ease with each other and the exercises they were doing. Two Delhi-based performers in the group, Amba Jhala and Anirudh Nair fitted in perfectly with the rest of the team. Everything was keyed on to the performance text of the play and works very well together. Playwright and director Saurabh Shukla’s sensitively written Hindi play Barff (snow) was presented by AGP World, Mumbai. Dr Kaul well played by Vinay Pathak is coerced into driving out at night into the interiors of Kashmir valley to treat a child of Ghulam Rasul and Nafiza. He discovers that the child is not a child but a doll which they treat as a live child. Without breaking their heart, he leaves the house, raising questions on what is truth; is it belief or is it the reality Does truth actually exist or is it a manifestation of one’s own belief Nafiza, played by Sadiya Siddiqui, believes that the child is actually alive and has got high temperature and the doctor must cure him. She keeps pestering him for not concentrating on the child. He is brow-beaten by her. He cracks up in the middle and lifts up the doll and asks her if she really believes it’s alive and her child And she says yes. So he feels defeated. He tries to leave the house but is bound hand and feet to a chair. Next morning, he declares the child well and is allowed to leave. This play was directed by its author with a great deal of patience and feeling, which came across very well. Soul of Fire, written by Susanne Felicitas Wolf and directed and acted by Maxi Blaha, was a moving document about Austrian pacifist, Bertha von Suttner. She fought for peace against nationalistic fanaticism and aggressive militariasim, anti-semitism and recognised the danger of hate-breeding. As a writer and lecturer, she inspired her friend and benefactor, Alfred Nobel to create a peace prize. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for her famous novel, Lay Down Your Arms. Maxi Blaha was excellent as the Austrian Suttner. She played all the passionate humanitarian and dramatic love affairs in later years and the heroine’s life vicissitudes in a moving yet humorous manner. She showed the ups and downs of her struggle with life with unsparing honesty and hopeful idealism. It brings into focus important political, psychological and emotional aspects of Suttner’s life. A excerpt from her novel says, "to apply international law, merge the divided group into a single group and found the union of civilised nations in Europe! Tiny is a minority which still wishes for war. Immeasurable vast are the masses who yearn for peace — not a truce maintained out of fear but a secure and guaranteed peace.""My challenge is to all of us who wish to join us, send in your name and address.
The Transparent trap was written and directed by Shrikant Bhide. It is a story about plastic and how humans have used it for each and everything since the day it was invented. We use plastic daily because it is extremely user-friendly. Yet, it is one of the prime reasons for global warming and has killed many aquatic, terrestrial and amphibian species. We have on stage actors coming on trapped in plastic bags, trying to get out and some dying in the process. Plastic invented for the betterment of humanity and it has become the killer of humanity itself. We eat out of plastic plates,
China Automotive Exterior Injection Plastic Part Molding we use plastic spoons, knives and forks and drink out of plastic cups and when the refuse becomes too much it is sought to be burnt leading to poisonous gas emissions which can cause death if it is breathed in for a long time. Besides this, we throw plastic bags in the seas and oceans and rivers and lakes, which can kill life below in the water and besides that the cows and dogs eat plastic bags leading to all kinds of problems. The fighting between the dogs over the plastic bags was hilarious. Led by Shrikant Bhide, the cast performed each of the scene-to-scene compositions, carefully crafted with a combination of physical theatre, music and lights, very well. The group from Pune that performed this non-verbal play was called Dhyaas. Tar aya is about the introduction of tar roads to a small village in Mysore. The visions of these scenes were well carved. The opinion between the educated youth is also seen as a clash of modernity and traditional values. Very interestingly the village elders were keen to bring in modernity while the youth fights to keep it at bay. From a simple narrative, the story plunges into diverse issues of caste system, religion and the role of women in rural society. The nature of the stories is inspirational enough though it is grounded in reality. The ending is quite tragic as in the fight between urbanisation and corruption an innocent child is killed in the molten tar.
This play is part of the National School of Drama production, New Delhi. The director of the play, Pandu Ranga and the playwright is Devanooru Mahadeva, a well known Kannada writer. The characters in the play are a variety of people from the village, including a temple priest, a musician girl, a mentally ill old man, a "bitching" woman and a musician man and seducing females forms, besides the women and men of the village. The tarring of the road scenes were very well done and they led to the narratives in an effortless manner. Jal Dumroo Baje is a tragic play, very dark and almost unoptimistic in its denoument. They are floods in the village where the human relationships are riven with internal conflicts, taboos, caste-based fundamentalism and beliefs and non-beliefs. These aspects continue to drive these people even when their surroundings are flooded with water and there is little hope of their being saved as the rains keep on coming. Their thought process is responsible for their psychological calamity in their individual situations and circumstances. The play was directed by Sanjay Upadhyay for the Patna based Nirman Kala Kendra and the play was worked out in a workshop process along with the writer, Rameshwar Prem.
