Sakharam Goes to Columbia

Vijay Tendulkar’s play Sakharam Binder,with its complex layers of morals and sexuality,was created 40 years ago and remains one of the milestones of contemporary Indian theatre. Now,Columbia Stages,the theatre producing arm of Columbia University’s School of Arts in New York,is set to stage an adaptation of the play. Director Nikhil Mehta says,“Sakharam Binder is a story about the razor thin line between compassion and cruelty,between love and violence; about a man who enacts at home the control he cannot have in the outside world; and about women,who,against all odds,never cease to demand what is theirs.” The play will open on March 27.

“I believe this story has never been more imperative than it is right now,in the aftermath of attempts at radical uprisings around the world,from West Asia to the Occupy Movement. Tendulkar’s characters reveal with stunning clarity both the expanse of what human beings are able to endure,and the ferocity with which we fight for a better life,” adds Mehta,who is training in direction at Columbia University.

The Columbia Stages adaptation,almost two-hour-long,is “set here and now. It is most important that the audience in New York is able to hear the text that so loudly resonates today,” says the director. Interestingly,none of the actors or designers are Indian or were familiar with Tendulkar’s work before they began the play.

Today,a number of them have become fans of Tendulkar and are reading his other works.

Blanca Añón,a designer from Spain,has transformed a warehouse at 3LD Art and Technology Centre in Manhattan into a contemporary house for Sakharam. One side of the house opens onto the streets of New York’s Greenwich Village,“blurring the distinction between the world of the play and the world on the street outside”. The video design by Andrew Lazarow,a New York-based designer,explores Sakharam’s world through multiple video cameras,surveillance cameras,projectors and TV.

“Sakharam Binder is rarely staged outside India. Ours marks only the second New York production in the play’s 40-year lifespan. Tendulkar is not alone in this regard — similarly elusive are his contemporaries,Girish Karnad,Mahesh Dattani,Habib Tanvir,Badal Sircar,the list goes on. I am passionate about bringing plays by these incredible Indian playwrights to New York,” says Mehta.