Tagore’s Last Love

She set out to find the answers,and the result is a series of three productions that will premier at Interart,a multi-arts festival,that is held annually at Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad. The festival,to be held from December 28 to 30,is now in its 36th year. In the line-up are Ritu Chakra,a dance composition that re-interprets 11 Tagore songs,and Street of Voices,a performance piece that amalgamates dance,music and theatre among others. But it is in,With Love,the final show of the festival,that Sarabhai will bring to the fore a woman considered to have been Tagore’s last love.

Victoria Ocampo,an Argentinian writer,editor and culture activist,was 34 when she met the 63-year-old Nobel Laureate. Unlike Tagore’s sister-in-law Kadambari Devi and his wife,Mrinalini — both of who influenced his works — little is known of her. Some scholars even deny the relationship. “It was a huge romance that lasted till Gurudev died. Yet,until I began researching his life,I didn’t even know of Victoria’s existence,” adds Mallika.

The performance piece has veteran actor Tom Alter as the older Tagore and Bharatanatyam and contemporary dancer Revanta Sarabhai as the litterateur’s younger self. Mallika herself enacts the role of Ocampo,bringing her alive as a towering intellectual who “adored Tagore’s work but didn’t treat him as something one puts in a glass case”. “Their’s was a rare relationship unmarked by possessiveness or a need to stay together and set up home,” she says,adding that she has spent a year “reading nothing but Tagore and writings on him”.

It was in Ocampo’s house in Buenos Aires that Tagore stayed while he was recuperating,and this is where he is said to have taken up painting. She was also the first person to translate Tagore’s works into Spanish. “Victoria wasn’t somebody one should whitewash from Tagore’s life. His loves reveal his vulnerability and is a greater tribute to his genius,” says Mallika.

With Love has been scripted and conceived by Mallika and Steve Mayer-Miller,an Australian artiste who works with aboriginals and island communities. This partnership is in keeping with InterArt’s ethos of promoting collaborative ventures. Street of Voices,similarly,is conceived by Edinburgh-based theatre artiste and puppeteer,Symon McIntyre,who interprets Tagore’s Streer Patra,a short story based on Mrinalini’s letters to him. “We interviewed a hundred women to incorporate their voices into this piece,” says Mallika.