The Great Indian Election of 2024 has just concluded. The results seem to indicate some kind of shift, no matter how small, towards moving away from the concentration of power in only one place. This made me wonder what has been the role of theatre in all of this. Have we helped change peoples’ mind?
Theatre has always – to paraphrase Jean Genet – held up a mirror to society. It is one of its fundamental roles. Unlike newer mediums of ‘entertainment’ like film and television, theatre needs much less creation time, so artists respond much more immediately to the events that impact them.
Often these are a reaction to the socio-political landscape around the makers. For example, in the early days of a newly Independent India, IPTA would stage plays that would be critiques of the various ills plaguing our society. Jan Natya Manch would do something similar with agit-prop street plays right through the 70s and 80s. In the UK, the mid-2000s were filled with productions set in Iraq like Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat or Jonathan Holmes' Fallujah etc. Most likely, a direct response to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars into which the UK followed on the coattails of the United States.
In the recent past, however, our own city’s stages have been dominated by much more 'personal' stories. One could attribute this to the Instagram world we now live in, where the self seems to be prioritized over society. So, narratives have tended to be about individuals dealing with their identity, or mental struggles, etc. That is until this year…
While all the aforementioned narratives endure, there is a new commentary that has emerged, that seems to spotlight the injustices of the powers; despite the restricted avenues of how and where criticism can occur. This increase in commentary about despots and the clamping down on personal freedoms, seems almost impossible and yet, inevitable at the same time. The best historical allegory, of course is, Nazi Germany, and theatre makers have begun to use that to great effect. Atul Kumar’s Taking Sides and his re-imagining of To Be Or Not To Be as Baaghi Albele are both set in and around WWII Germany. Sunil Shanbag is soon going to stage Utpal Dutt’s Barricade, again set in the same period.
But perhaps, what is especially noticeable about this ‘movement’ is that it is spread across different kinds of theatre makers, not just the usual groups who make work with a political slant. So, while an Abhishek Majumdar remounting his Des, or a Sunil Shanbag reviving Barricade could be seen as par for the course; when looked at in combination with all the other work being generated, it does seem to point to a larger consciousness among makers to comment about the world we are in.
AKvarious, for example, always known for their light and enjoyable plays, have also been responding to some of the injustices around. Their Verdict and There’s Something in the Water (a re-imagining of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People) are remarkable comments on the times we are living in. The productions still have all the group’s trademarks of ‘quippy’ dialogue, ridiculous characters and humour, but still seems to making a comment that is much larger than the individual. Even their recent children’s play Go With The Flow, looked at corporate greed in a world where water is scarce.
Similarly, new group The Gathered, chose Tuncer Cücenoğlu’s Avalanche as their maiden production. The original Turkish play was written as an artistic response to the Erdogan regime, and this Hindi re-location serves to ask questions about obedience and tradition, and blindly following a mandate.
Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta directed by Mohit Takalkar is a Marathi translation of Sam Steiner’s Lemons, Lemons, Lemons… The play is about a restriction on the number of words that can be used by a human being in conversation. There is a constant reduction in the number that is permissible, which serves as a comment both on the strictures put on us by the ever-evolving social media algorithms and also, the larger legislative forces that seem to be limiting what we can say and how much.
As an avid play-goer of all sorts of work, it is heartening to see the artists responding to what seems to be affecting them quite strongly. And while each one is making work that is deeply personal to them, the over-arching trend does seem to be finding interesting stories to tell that engage and enlighten us about the world we are a part of. And perhaps that is how they can help make the world ‘fairest of them all’.
Quasar Thakore Padamsee is a Bombay-based theatre-holic. He works primarily as a theatre-director for arts management company QTP, who also manage the youth theatre community, Thespo.
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