PLAY COUNTRY

ADISHAKTI,PONDICHERRY
In 1993,Veenapani Chawla moved to Vazhakulam,a small town eight kilometres from Pondicherry. The Mumbai thespian was leaving behind the space she had earned for herself in the city’s theatre circuit,with acclaimed plays like Odeipus and Savitri. She was staking all that for a dream: developing a contemporary theatrical idiom using traditional art forms. With six theatre associates,who shared that vision,she set up the Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research.

Since then,Adishakti,nestled between two villages,has been an incubator for several exciting experiments in contemporary Indian theatre. It was the ideal setting for Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream,which was rehearsed and readied here before it took the theatre world by storm.
Chawla,now 63,has researched Indian martial arts and classical theatre forms for years and believes that “it’s the knowledge of traditional arts that makes the contemporary language richer”. That’s the reason Adishakti hosts constant interactions with traditional artists. The group’s performances are shot through with the vocabulary of Kalaripayattu,Kathakali,Koodiyattam,Chhau,puppetry and other folk art. “We work as provocateurs. Apart from traditional arts,we also explore ancient text,” says Chawla,the artistic director of Adishakti,who,for the last three years,has been exploring different versions of the Ramayana.
“I have a different sense of aesthetics,which is driven by a contemporary vision. It borders on the hybrid and is not restricted to the purity of traditional forms,” says Chawla,who uses shadow puppetry in The Hare and The Tortoise,akin to the use of digital projection in plays. Four of Adishakti’s major plays,Ganapati,Hare and The Tortoise,Impressions of Bhima and Rhinoceros,will be staged at this year’s fest.
Thumbs up: “Veenapani Chawla has evolved a different way of narration by using old techniques. She has found new interpretations for the modern Indian theatre while the vocabulary belongs to our traditional art forms,” says thespian Arundhati Nag.

NIRMAN KALA MANCH,PATNA
When Sanjay Upadhyay’s classmates at National School of Drama (NSD) dreamt of a career in Mumbai,he waited for the holidays to arrive so that he could return to Patna and do theatre. During his first break at NSD in 1988,he did just that: he founded Nirman Kala Manch,a theatre group that survives to this day and has produced 60 plays. “It was a spontaneous decision to live in Bihar and base my plays on folk art forms. I have spent my early years in villages. That’s why I could never shrug off the influence of traditional arts in my work,” says the 62-year-old.
Prithvi Theatre is hosting five of Nirman Kala Manch plays—Neelkanth Nirala (based on poet Suryakant Tripathi Nirala’s life),Harsingar,Kaha Gaye Mere Ugna,Dharti Aaba (based on poet Birsa Munda’s life) and Bidesia. Most of Nirman Kala Manch’s plays are musicals,drawing heavily on folk arts and local talent. Bidesia,which revolves around a woman’s determination to get her wayward husband back after he goes to Kolkata in search of work,is its most popular production and has been performed nearly 500 times. Lyricist-actor Piyush Mishra’s Gagan Damaamaa Bajou (on Bhagat Singh’s life),Bakri and Company Ustad are other notable plays of the group.
The director takes his plays to remote parts of Bihar and other states. The group has nearly 10 people on its payroll and,for the last decade,has made Bihar Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Patna its home. “Over the years,we have come to focus on musicals and biographical plays. All the plays are originals and bear influences of folk dance and music forms like Bidesia,Bhavai,Nautanki and Domkach. The sets are minimalist to make travelling easy,” Upadhyay says.
Safar Maina,an offshoot of the group,is proof of its ability to weave theatre into the life of local communities. “We started Safar Maina in 1990 with children of Nand Nagar Colony,a place infamous for criminal antecedents of its residents,” says Usha Kiran Khan,president of the Manch. Most of the children of this slum go to school while a couple of youngsters have made it to NSD. But Nirman Kala Manch’s biggest role has been in training grassroots artists in all the facets of theatre. “In the next five years,we plan to open a theatre institute,” says Upadhyay.
Thumbs up: “Sanjay Upadhyay is a good singer and has a great music sense. He is doing a commendable job of creating musical plays based of folk traditions of India,” says theatreperson Satyadev Dubey.