British playwright Mike Bartlett’s modern play Cockfound its dramatic adaptation on the stage of Mumbai, courtesy actor-turned-director Jim Sarbh with his small motley of cast- boyfriend Siddharth Kumar, girlfriend Aditi Vasudev, father Suhas Ahuja and pianist Kaizad Gherda. Cheekily titled Cock; presumably the boldness does not end with the title. Confronting strong thematic elements like homosexuality, bisexuality, identity and sexual politics; this Allmytea Productions’ latest theatrical presentation toyed with a truthful territory:

The Stage:

Bare.Empty. Minimal…and a white circle. This is the new age stage. Devoid of set, furniture, chairs even, props…nothing that will take away from the words of the actor and the imagination of the audience. The circular periphery acted as a befitting visual display of the protagonist’s repetitive but futile questioning of his sexual orientation. The claustrophobia felt by the protagonist John (Jim Sarbh) when constantly compelled by the society to define his sexuality, is well communicated through the stage space restricted by the circle. This kind of stage design releases the production from the compulsions of representing reality…the emphasis is therefore, on the play and provocation of ideas.

Lights and Sound:

Lights played the integral role of transitions throughout the performance. Guiding us from one scene to another was absolute darkness and absolute silence while the actors maintain their spot on stage; no entries, no exits. But, the next strand of dialogues picks up mid-way and the audience catches up with the characters’ already lived experience. This structure contributes towards the pace and movement of the play and keeps the audience engaged. The concept of live music on stage is getting popular and the notes of the piano add to the dramatic effect of the powerful dialogues without intruding into the voices of the characters.

Acting:

Bold actions like kissing between the male lovers, holding of the cock and a simulated orgasmic experience during sexual intercourse tear apart pretentious masques and portray bare naked truths of the thickly veiled bedroom life. What became primal in the capturing of the issues of sexuality was the subtle looks, the deliberate eye movements, the sexual nature of the caress to convince the audience about the sexual nature of the human body. Vital was the examination of the naked bodies of lovers- it foregrounded the sexual component of that thing we call love and marriage. To essay these characters seemed challenging because it was not what the actors could do with their bodies but more so how they could react to the presence of the body of another that created the friction of emotions on stage. The estrangement that exists between the male and the female body before the first sexual union is beautifully captured when John looks upon skeptically at his first female partner.

Script:

There is very subtle humor embedded in the tone and nuances of the script. It also contains thought provoking nuggets like the short monologue of John when he questions his partner’s father about the meaning of the cultural politics of the 1960s. Instead of being helpless about his confusion, when John attempts to sever the ties between sexuality and identity, Bartlett’s words are truly invoking the libertine and the egalitarian. However, what can also not be denied is the monotony and boredom arising from the repetitive nature of the conflict and dialogues in the second act of the play especially since the dinner conversation only reiterates the problem rather than uncovering new perspectives.

On the young and exuberant stage of Thespo, Sri Lanka’s Walking Path left an indelible theatrical trail to its Indian audience at Prithvi on Friday, December 19. This production whose central premise was the campaign to construct new parks and paths as a symbolic reconstruction of their nation; was designed without dialogues. The elimination of hitherto considered primal medium of communication was drastic enough. However, its foreknowledge gave the audience enough time to sharpen their senses.

The costume was marked with the unadulterated white- the impeccably pure and clear- just as the message of the performance. White being one of the conventional choice for mime artistes, the actors were divided into three sets right from the start- the runners, the vigilant enforcers and the vibrant youth. While the runners symbolized the mindless following of the authority, the vigilante group was the emblem of repressive state watchdogs and the youth represented the spirit of individual freedom and expression that were time and again curtailed in one way or the other. The minute distinction between the groups achieved through all white costumes showed the dependence on subtlety to communicate to tis audience. Superimposed against the black ambience of the theatre, the actors and their expressions were only enhanced further by the use of white smoke on stage.

The props like bags, sandwiches, sunscreen lotions, balloons et al were incorporated into the white schema. However, more interesting was the artificial cardboard versions of cellphones and laptops that were used as important objects as part of the performance. The unauthentic shade given to these objects adds a layer of the fantastical. Thus, it convinces the audience about its symbolic value and stresses its function as a message rather than a mere prop. Due to the absence of dialogues, the violence and the oppression is not pinned down to a specific situation or culture or political group or country. This enables the audience of a cross-cultural composition to connect with it through their own personal and political vantage point.

The music migrated from the realistic- like the sound of traffic, the sound of the birds, the cellphone beeps, cries of the babies to the symbolic- the calm beats for the youth that kept recurring, the humorous beat for the lighter scenes and the ironically melancholic during a mock crying scene. When one is not hearing words, the ears, surprising within a short period of time, becomes tuned to capturing the wide minutiae of sounds used in the play.

The use of stage space and set design were exceptionally minimalistic in nature. The white benches of different sizes used were once again employed to function at two levels- the real and the symbolic. Coupled with the superlative acting, the benches helped in recreating in the minds of the audience a virtual setting and a convincing one at that. At the more symbolic level, they indicated the physical proximity and emotional distance that exist among people today.

The acting was the limelight of the performance, the showstopper, the penultimate weapon of mass appeal and adulation. What the seven lead actors and the wide array of auxiliary actors succeeded in doing is to outline the role of the human body in theatre. It stood as a reminder to the fans of the theatre that this art form is conducted through the body primarily. That the body remains the most powerful carrier of thoughts and ideas. The mobile phone scene where the director wanted to showcase the emotional saturation, alienation and insensitivity perpetrated by modern technology is the point in case. The actor who creates an emotionally charged moment of grief through his crying and struggling body induces pathos in the audience only to immediately throw in comic relief and anti-climactic laughter. Yet, the human condition has never appeared more pitiful where deep angst has to be artificially cultivated to secure the mandatory, obsessive likes and laughter on social networking sites. The behind-the-scene conductor of this show, the director, achieved a theatrical stroke of excellence with the supremely well-coordinated body movements and eye contact in the scene where the actors were portraying the perfect harmony and togetherness with each other. It also had one of those rare incorporations of the gay couple in a public park being under the scanner of the moral police. The actors had such prowess that they controlled their reaction to the presence of other actors on stage with as much panache as they created the feeling of love and sexual attraction towards their partners.

It is difficult to sustain the symbolic and the silent for an unbroken period of 75 minutes. But, Walking Path did exactly that and more- it sustained a continuum of critical thinking and emotions for an intensely moving period of 75 minutes. 

Arpana Theatre’s Stories in a Song comes with its own definition- a collage of music, theatre and literature. And then it pushes its own periphery of performance- to encompass history, culture, human nature. Musically conceived by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan and directed by Sunil Shanbag, this menagerie of six narratives represents theatre as a conduit of critique and change. Flanked by the pakhawaj, dholak, table and harmonium; the live sounds and rhythms infuse an authentic setting to every era, act as the travelling troubadour and create characters out of actors by adding the additional dramatic layer.

While confessedly, the word cannot illumine the stage, here’s glimpsing through the stories that outlived their stage life:

Mahatma Gandhi and the Tawaif Sabha:

The conventional figure of the sutradhar underscores the marginalized position of the prostitutes and just when the audience anticipates a story of redemption, the fourth wall and the falsity of representation are simultaneously ruptured- the character on stage interrupts the sutradhar and claims ownership of her own story, in her own voice. This directorial choice tells the audience that the intention to get the tawaifs to the centre of stage and history is for real.  For those in the audience who could not grasp the meaning of every word sung by the tawaif(Ketaki Thatte), the facial expressions and gestures sufficed to invoke the premise of the song-narrative. The sensual appeal of the tawaif is at once transformed into her performative body rather than her sexual one. The interaction with the Mahatma is narrated onstage by the tawaif as an offstage incident in the past- this fluid transition in time and space further engages the audience in the imaginative process of the traditional story-telling tradition.  

Chandni Begum:

If the characters and sutradhar exchanged places in the previous one, here the fictional stage dramatizes fictional characters from Qurat-Ul-Ain Haider’s novel Chandni Begum. Art meets reality and reality ruptures art…the line has blurred. Here, music ceases to be a mere medium, in fact, it assumes the significance of a theme. The hypocrisy of the Socialist revolutionary ideologies and propaganda add the shade of sarcasm while underscoring the socio-economic constructs for a genre of music to thrive. What was astonishing to see was the development of the character of Bela (Trisha Kale) and the times, within the extremely short stage span through the nuanced singing she undertakes. The song at the wedding has sly undertones of boldness, the mother’s song assumes a nostalgic sentiment of a time when women and marriage were best companions. The same song emerges as the feminine voice of resistance to preserve and redeem her lost dignity at the hands of materialistic lust wanderers.

Bahadur Ladki:

When the sutradharadheres to contemporary Bollywood cinema as the child of nautanki, it shows the production’s self-conscious place in the historical continuum of lineage. The rendition of the Ganesh Vandana reiterates the now forgotten sacrosanct relationship between the artist and his art, between aesthetics and its spiritual force. Comprising entertainment in the form of humour, this segment showcases the effective amalgamation of spectacle and scrupulous social awareness. While the acting prowess of the Sippaiya (Namit Das) is par excellent, it is the acumen of the writer and director to establish the adaptive nature of language. The genre belongs to North India, the English dialogues beckons to the colonial authenticity of the character. The foreign language of the classes is accommodated and appropriated within the native genre of the masses. Ironically, it is the indigenous characters that mock the British accent- the uproar from the audience further makes them an equal participant in reducing the colonial Sippaiya to a comic caricature.

Sufi Basant:

For a narrative that is admittedly musical in nature, it is a sublime spectacle to unravel the story of spring through the choreography of color and lights. The blue light with a tinge of yellow casts the right melancholic mood for the mourner at the shrine. Basant is personified through the characters of the female singers- their bright yellow dupattas further deepening the brightness of their multi-coloured velvet kurtis. The fresh flush of yellow light flooding the right center of the stage along with the subdued movements and subtle teasing of the women characters infuse the stage with a transcendental mood. It is elevating and solacing at once- this yellow spirit when handed over to the sutradharwho wraps it around himself- truly creates Basant as a lived character.

Whose Music Is It?

This segment plays with the duality of atmospheres to communicate the difference in two worlds and worldviews. The contrast between the ideal and the commercial, the juxtaposition of the Indian with the Western is showcased through the visible distinction between the costumes and dialogues of the Classical singer and that of the playback music director. For the former, the stage is barren, the colors earthy and dialogues frugal; for the latter, the stage is strongly lit, accentuated with reverberating sound beats and an infusion of dialogue. Caught between these two, the narrative expresses the basic human desire for fame and acceptance.  

Kajri Akhada:

The ultimate rendition reverts to the unifying art form- theater. Although a competition of and between musicians, the transactional communication between the actor-singers and the audience takes place through the unadulterated art of acting. This segment demonstrated the significance of reaction in theatre. For most part, the focus is on the lead singer/s but it is the consistent reactions of the non-singing actors that added meaning to the musical tete-a-tete. The mock questioning of the validity of stories and rumours raises an interesting question of doubt and trust in the mind of the audience. The collective interest however, is clearly established- in the element and intention of dramatic quality. Be it the loud colors of the jackets or the pronounced body language of the actors; this last genre reinforces the loud, unabashed and dramatic quality of Indian regional theater and its indelible impact.   

Self-confessedly inspired by the narrative format of Paris, je t'aime and heavily influenced by literary movements, writers Aritra Sengupta and Ayanti Ghosh have scripted a competent play in the form of With Love, Calcutta. I deliberately and consciously mention the two spearheading Bengalis as writers and not directors for here is a rare stage production whose sole strength lies in the lines- a fact foreshadowed by the pamphlet handed over at the entrance with the “Synopsis” and the “Director’s Note” unmistakably pronounced for every member of the audience. 
An intellectually stringed ensemble of short vignettes act as lyrical odes to the City of Joy tracing its journey from Calcutta to Kolkata, from the old to the changing, from the colonial to the communal. The personified voice of the city opened the play with a highly stylized poetic monologue and its rendition was further heightened with the symbolic play with light and darkness. The lantern with its constant light and its flickering shadows almost visually set the theme of the stage- the convergence of the good and the bad in this beleaguered city of joy. The too contrite quality of the words in this monologue, if it overwhelmed the audience and got lost on them; the effective employment of lights made up for setting the mood.They usually say that film is the sixth art that encompasses all the other existing art forms in order to express and communicate. The multi-platform and multimedia approach adopted by the directors lifted the stage experience to that degree of the sixth art. 
The usage of real life footage mapping the historical and political changes of Calcutta served as an apt juxtaposition with the short fictional narratives and character snatches; the latter acting as the felt repercussions of the former. Yet another juxtaposition albeit not an effective one, was that of seasoned and amateur actors. While the script remained strong throughout, the difference in the stage experience of the actors seeps through- not so much in the acting in as much as the nuances. 
The actor playing the role of the daughter in the mother-daughter narrative and the soliloquy delivered in the Durga Pooja segment is a point in case. The lines looked too rehearsed, the facial expressions repetitive and the replies in conversations too sharply demarcated to look natural. The lack of compliment here can be transferred in the form of credit to the make-up artists who constantly kept transforming young actors into older characters and the same actors into myriad characters. In sharp contrast to the amateurish bumps, the monologue delivered by the drunken, alcoholic beggar infused with sharp, caustic witticism and heightened with the dramatic interplay of lights succeeded in creating an impressive theatrical experience. The interjected direct address by the actor to the lights operator also ensured the powerful breaking of the fourth wall and gave vigor to the deliberate and self-conscious statement being made by the medium of the stage by the powerfully minded MOD group. 
The Existential angst being transposed through the unequivocal and representative voice of the old, debilitating character of the father was a masterstroke to say the least. The intellectual and material, the nostalgic and the futuristic, the sentimental and the pragmatic…this capsuled version of multiple clashes and frictions within the two generations of the contemporary Bengali society manifested the deep-rooted understanding of the city the MOD artistes possess. To have the last monologue and the most effective penultimate vignette in and through the character of a mentally imbalanced beggar served well to act as a metaphor for the madness and the deterioration that the city is experiencing. The antithetical and paradoxical epithets of the poem constructed by the documentary filmmakers seem to pale in comparison and leaves the audience wishing that this script had been packaged with one scene less.
For all the Mumbaikars who feel that only their city can impregnate artists with tales of the flesh and the mind, With Love Calcutta opened up the raw guts and sublime moments of an urban space much criticized, much colonized, much chastised.