The National School of Drama’s 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsava was inaugurated on January 7 with a performance of Habib Tanvir’s classic play Charan Das Chor in an Assamese version presented by Ba and directed by Anup Hazarika. The adaptation in Assam’s traditional and folk forms was interesting and the musical interludes well enacted and sung, but the main characters resorted to loud acting, with slapstick taking centrestage and everyone, from the guru to the queen and the chor/thief, essaying similar movements.

In fact, the festival has not yielded anything really outstanding so far. Nothing as accomplished as this year’s NSD post-graduate productions Hamlet Machine, Pedro Paramo, An autobiography of a Devil, Great Expectations and Reshmi Rumal all staged during the first six days. These plays have been reviewed in these columns earlier.
Once again Japan scored over the others in its tradition-driven production Ugetsu Mnogatari, which had a spiritual, almost meditative, quality in its staging. The female serpent Manago comes to Toyoo, a rich fisherman’s son, for shelter from the rain. The atmosphere for the tale is set in the very first sequence; dark windy and eerie quickly shifting to demanding, threatening and sensuous as the umbrella Manago claims to protect her from the rain comes into play, with her four extensions in a dance that is contemporary, inspired by the Japanese performing art form Kabuki and other dance and drama styles, including modern dances like hip-hop etc.
When Toyoo goes to reclaim his umbrella, Manago gives him a golden sword, which she declares belonged to her dead husband, as a token of their love and contract of marriage. The sword, however, is stolen from a shrine. On discovering the stolen treasure, the officers question Toyoo. The trail leads them to Manago’s house where they take Toyoo for further investigation; here they discover Manago’s true identity. Toyoo runs away and tries to make a new life for himself and marries an ordinary woman who knows a trick or two herself. She manages to trap the spirit of the obsessed Manago in an earthenware pot.
Manago’s final struggle to escape from the pot while Toyoo holds it shut tight is pure drama. This is the final test of love and belief of trust and commitment for Toyoo. Does he want to spend the rest of his life with a woman who is a serpent? Does he love Manago enough to forget this reality? The answer is yes as Manago emerges from the pot in all her glory. And shock of all shocks from under the mask of one of the dancers is revealed the director, the very young and highly gifted Madoka Okada who is artistic director of the talented group, the Kaden Theatrical Art Company.
The script and direction by Mudoka Okada of this 10th Century tale is different from what we have come to expect from the Japanese. It is not an involved text, and tells a simple story about a serpent’s obsessive love for a human and how it triumphs against all odds much like our own nagins. So, though the idea of a man possessed by a female serpent may be alien to other cultures, it is common in Indian mythology to find stories about snakes and humans. The well-known play by Girish Karnad, Nagmandala, is about a snake’s obsessive love for a woman who bears him a child. When accused of adultery the snake helps her to become a goddess instead.
Of the plays seen those that created some sort of an impact were the plays from Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Albania. As far as memory goes this festival has never had any plays from these countries, so watching a new culture was attractive. The Barber of Seville, in its original drama form as against the more popular opera style, written by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, was presented by the Albanian National Theatre in Tirana in the direction of the artistic director of the Theatre of Lorient of Brittany (France), Eric Vigner.
The Albanian language sounds very dramatic and is unique to Albany. Eric Vigner avers he is an “inter lingual” navigator and believes in building on dramatic art as common ground. He develops international collaborations to last over years, searching for a mutual cultural transmission. On his visits to Albania, the people he saw appeared as black and white to him. According to Vigner, the characters in the play Barber of Seville are also black and white.
The set is constructed in black and white and the characters are also dressed in B/W. The sets are imaginatively designed on wheels. The curtain opens on a white perforated screen, dividing the hall in two. The meeting of the Count (in disguise) and the Barber Figaro is in front of the screen. They are dressed in white. The inner space (in black) is introduced by Rosine as she comes out on a balcony. In a breathtaking moment, the set (which was designed for the revolving stage in Tirina) built of slotted angled channels, is turned around to reveal the dark interior. The action continues in the interior on the house.
There wasn’t a very good response to the performances. It was difficult to accept an old and stout man as the hero, particularly as Lindor the student. According to the thought-provoking directorial design, the count is old, older perhaps than Bortholo. And the end is not a happy one as Rosina wants to get out and, therefore, agrees to marry the count who in turn treats the marriage as victory over a pretty virgin. The only genuine person is Bortholo who truly loves Rosine and wants to protect her from people like the count, and the only way to do that is by marrying her. The actor who played Bortholo was excellent: the rest of the cast lacked energy.
The wordless Chilean play The revenge of Ramon Ramon, directed by Manuel Loyola Faundez, takes a historical incident of the 1907 killing of miners and their families by General Silva Renard and his death at the hands of a survivor of the genocide Antonio Ramon Ramon. Both the main roles are played by female actors who bring an edge to the performance which relies entirely on movements for expression.
The other Chilean play, Pueta Peralta also takes a bit of history as its content; the life and times of the poet Jean Bautista Peralta, who was one of the popular poets who published in the single sheet Lira (end of 19th and beginning of the 20th century) that carried comments in poetry on national occurrences and local events that affected the poets. The puppets communicated brilliantly the life of this poet and singer who went blind as a child due to malnutrition, and grows up to become a trade union leader and the champion of the poor and the exploited. The live music and the animated commentary in English played a vital role in bringing the puppets to life.
Memories of An Earthquake, written and directed by Ceasr Brie with the actors of the Bolivian Teatro de los Andes, was quite dull and repetitive in the first half, as it tried to recreate the havoc of the massive earthquake on May 22, 1999 that ravaged several cities and farming towns in the Andes. The second half about what happens after the earthquake, the corruption and foul play, the inhuman approach of the media towards the victims, the arrival of worldwide aid and its wayward distribution, the coming of multinationals with sale gimmicks, the play picks up momentum.
Bipin Kumar, an NSD alumnus, has been working in Sikkim for the past four years in which time he has been able to raise a repertory which will soon receive sanctions from the NSD. The play in Nepali presented at the SRC, Siddhartha Gautam Dekhi Buddha Samma: Ek Yatra, written by Vijay Mishra and directed by Bipin Kumar, is based on the relationship between Ichchawati and Nillohith and an incident that occurs when they desire to join the Sangh started by Gautam Buddha and run by his disciple Ananda.
Just as they are about to enter the Sangh, Ichchawati raises an issue about what is desire and its importance in life. When Ananda rubbishes her questions, she wishes to see the Buddha. She is not allowed to meet-him.
On overhearing Ichc-hawati’s questions, Gautam Buddha himself begins to seek answers to the question raised by the woman. He returns to his home in Kapilavastu to converse with his wife and son. Before leaving, he tells his son Rahul to always follow his heart. The lively debate on man woman relationship is carried on at some length in the play, making it intellectually stimulating, but at the same time too verbose. The performances were steady and felt, and the play was an oasis in the general run-of-the-mill stuff ladled out during the first six days of the Bharangam.