Punjabi film actor Samuel John has a little-known side he creates plays with inputs from landless labourers and small farmers The tragedy of Macbeth,the politics of Brecht,the poetry of Patar,the folk tales of Punjab Samuel Johns stage has space for many idioms and ideologies. But what makes the theatre actor,director and activists journey noteworthy is his stage,Lehragaga,a small village in one of Punjabs most backward areas. Small farmers and landless labourers are the leitmotif of Johns plays and his main audience too. The stage is a part of his dream to take theatre to his people. It is an open-air theatre in Lehragaga,with a capacity of 400. This is where John and his team of actors shape their stories. It was a labour of love,built piece by piece with the help of friends,theatre lovers and the people of the village and around. Somebody brought the bricks,somebody else provided the cement,and people who I do plays with helped me construct it. The plays we do echo concerns that strike a chord with the people and,hopefully,make a difference to their lives. I like to think that in a backward area such as this,the stage provides solace to artistes and the audience, says John. John doesnt restrict his performances to the open-air theatre. He works in Malwa,Sangrur,Patiala,Ropar and parts of Amritsar. His inspiration stems from the theatre of the revolutionaries. One of his ideals is thespian Gursharan Singh,who went from village to village,and to small towns,challenging the societal norms. After getting my theatre degree from Patiala,I moved to Mumbai and worked with slum children for four years. This was when I realised that I needed to go back to my people and work within their community, says John,looking back almost 15 years. From a team of 15 to now five due to a lack of resources,Johns group Peoples Theatre stages plays in the homes of people,making them a part of the performance. The idea is to melt the differences,create a synergy and get the audience to open up. We talk to them about our play and add their responses and emotions to the script. As more and more people join in,they find a space to sit,get a chatai,bring water and,as a result,a theatre activity is born. This instils a sense of discipline and camaraderie. We stop in between the performance to ask the audience how it feels about an issue and then incorporate the inputs into developing the story. At the end,we take a chaadar and tell them to give us what they can. We are paid in terms of dal,gur,rice and so on. We come back fulfilled, says John. He is currently staging Kirti,a play that aims to bridge the gap between small farmers and landless labourers. To keep the theatre running,John does films,the last one being the acclaimed Punjabi movie Anhey Ghore Da Daan,which also won the National Award. Films give me the resources to continue my work,the latest being with children of government schools in villages. We help them dramatise Punjabi folk tales and stories that are part of the syllabus, says John
