The second year students of the National School of Drama (NSD) staged Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade in a Hindustani adaptation Garbha Natak. According to director K.R. Rajendran, the play is also named after the Sanskrit term, “play within a play”.
Marat/Sade describes the enactment of a play within the play, set in a lunatic asylum, where Marquis de Sade writes and enacts a play on Jacobin leader Jean Paul Marat and his murder by virgin Charlotte Corday — a Girondins adherent. The inmates of the asylum play all the parts. They form the mob which yelled for the blood of the nobility. On July 24, 1789, citizens stormed the Bastille, in pursuit of arms. In the countryside, farmers and peasants revolted against their feudal contracts by attacking the manors and estates of their landlords.
These attacks continued until August when the August Decree freed the peasants from their oppressive contracts. Then followed a rift between the moderates (Girondins) and the radicals (Jacobins) within the National Assembly. While the Girondins favoured a constitutional monarchy, the Jacobins wanted an end monarchy. Marat was looked upon by the Jacobins as their leader. In the asylum, it is to Marat that the mob turns when it begs for justice, food and freedom. These scenes were adroitly handled and effectively played to lyrics by Kiran Deep Sharma. The entire play has been well adapted by V.K. Sharma who has given the text an urgency and liveliness, essential in a political play.
The Marxist philosophy to which Peter Weiss adhered is evident in the play. A strong upholder of the liberation movements in the third world, Weiss believed that capitalism was largely to blame for the state of this world. The debate between Marat and Sade is reflective of the internal conflict within Weiss. The argument between Marquis de Sade and Marat verges on the conflict between the beliefs that the revolution can bring about a change in the society and the feelings that all revolutions fail before the murderous instinct of a man.
The play was staged in the Abhimanch auditorium with the stage converted into a barred asylum which was the pit with the audience on tired seating on one side.
The stage design was interesting with Sade seated in a high chair occupying almost the centre stage, slightly towards the left. On the right downstage was Marat afflicted by a skin disease sitting in a bathtub tended by his wife. On the left downstage was the sleep intoxicated asylum inmate, who was playing Charlotte Corday, guarded by two nurses who would wake her up when she had to play her role. She was quite a character as played by Bandana Rawat. Chavan Vinod Bhardwaj is gifted with a rich voice that he used to his advantage as Marat to be ahead of Vyas Hemang Rajendra (Marquis de Sade) who is not similarly gifted.
The company of singers occasionally went slightly over the top with their acrobatics, but by and large provided good entertainment with their satirical and rousing lyrics.
The mob was also in sync with the mood, and kept one reminded of the fact that the play is about the revolution and about hunger and oppression, about the enemies and the friends of the people, about death and about life.
There are glimpses of the theatre of cruelty as manifest in the theory of Antonin Artuad, and more so the influence of Bertold Brecht is seen in the unsettling nature of the script.
Meanwhile, Kshitij is celebrating its 25th birthday with new and old plays from its repertoire. Bharti Sharma, the indefatigable founder member of Kshitij theatre group, is a fine actress besides being an accomplished director. In this Rajottsav Festival, the group stages two plays over the last weekend of the month.
In March, the group presented a wonderful play from their repertoire Masterpiece and a new play Dilli Jo K Shahar Tha.
Dilli Jo K Shahar Tha, written by Danish Iqbal, tackles a rarely touched upon part of the Indian history, the reign of the 12th emperor of the Mughal dynasty Mohammed Naseeruddin.
According to the writer, Naseeruddin was close to nature and believed in the values and aspects of life which gave peace and a sense of spirituality to human beings. In contrast to him is Nadir Shah who comes to India at that time. Nadir Shah has no value for the human being and has no compunctions in using their life to further his gains. The play opens with drunk Naseeruddin (Mohit Tripathi) searching for water in the palace where he is being kept in solitary confinement. His friend Kali Ghata (Hitesh Bhargava) comes to him with the news that his father, the emperor, is dead and the fight for a successor has begun.
They go back to the city in disguise where Naseeruddin meets a soothsayer who predicts great things for him. Just then there is an announcement that Naseeruddin is the successor to the throne.
This anecdotal play, without any deep meanings, was as simply directed by Ms Sharma. She had a good actor in Mohit Tripathi who did not overindulge himself. She herself was slightly off key in her dancing ability as Noor, Naseeruddin’s beloved.