Theatre activists Neelam Mansingh and Veena Pani emphasise on regionalising the national and nationalising the regional theatre"What 7000 words cannot express, theatre artistes express through their bodies with an élan," observes noted actor, Amol Palekar. The second day of the ongoing theatre fest, Theatre Beyond Words, witnessed some exemplary works of renowned names from theatre - Veena Pani and Neelam Mansingh. The objective behind organising the fest was to bring forth the strength of expression that takes art beyond words and reaches the hearts and minds of the audiences despite cultural and linguistic differences. Arundhati Nag opened the second day of the fest and spoke on the nuances of art. Theatre artiste, Vinay Kumar received Amrish Puri Award for his outstanding work. To honour his achievement the play, Hare and the tortoise, featuring Vinay Kumar was also showcased which was directed by Veena Pani . Talking about her motivation in taking up experimental theatre, Pani says, "It was the search of the culture to which I belong and quest of Indianness in the theatre that was inherited from the west drove me to take up many kind of experiments."Explaining the concept, she says that she wanted to break free from the image of following the theatre that was inherited from the west. "There are visible forms of tradition and other elements of a culture that get marginalised. I wanted to explore the unseen and feel and express its influence on the performance of the artistes. Theatre is not just performing, it's an endless learning process, where one learns and evolves."Pani's group is known as research laboratory that itself speaks of the extensive experiments it takes up. "The approach is not just performance oriented it's also about the influence of various factors, be it regional or national on the actors and the play on a whole."Pani pointed out that various art like classical dance form might become stagnant if they fail to communicate with the community audiences. "Being exotic would make an art alien and thus hold it from moving ahead."Another well-known name from the world of theatre, Neelam Mansingh shared her theatrical journey in Punjab. "Punjab was identified with rough language, and its culture was represented by gidda and bhangra. This was more image distortion for me. Local tradition always appealed to me so my first play was a kissa, a story about Heer Ranjha. Despite being very near to culture there was a poor response, however I am satisfied that I have changed the perception of the people of Punjab towards theatre," says Mansingh. "Punjabi was rejected by its own people. But to me, language is not sound; it is representative of the culture, the tradition and the root of the society. My attempt is to reagionalise the national and nationalise the reagional. I am happy that people are awakened. It is gradual but it has finally happened. I see that not knowing your own language is an embarrassment today," observes Mansingh.Sharing her view about the experimental theatre she said that her experimentation began by bringing together the folk artiste and urban artiste in her group and the experiment has proved quite successful. "They complete each other and help each other in learning more of life and art," she concludes.
