The subtitle for the play Bring Down the Walls by Dream Theatre reads: “An original concert theatre by Rahul Pulkeshi.’’ What exactly is concert theatre? I have seen musicals with live music and musicians onstage, with recorded music and, of course, there is opera. In musicals one can have everything in song or songs interspersed with dialogues. Both styles are termed musical plays. Bring down the Walls has a live band on stage. Does this describe it as concert theatre?
Whatever you may name it, the show on June 25, staged outdoors at the Mapple Emerald Hotel in New Dehi, was entertaining stuff: the proof of which was the continued presence of spectators despite the oppressive heat. Directed and designed by N. Kumar, it featured veteran actors Tom Alter and Lushin Dubey in the lead or rather as anchors for the theme of individual and society. Or rather of individual beliefs when they come into direct conflict with norms set by society.
Mounted on a huge stage with a three-tiered set the drama had multiple acting areas. The right upstage along with the apron was the domain of the Think Floyd India band. Left upstage sat Tom Alter in his den. The left downstage top level is occupied by the painter couple’s home cum studio. The other couple (Lushin and Rubin) and their college-going daughter live in the left centre portion while the college hostel room is across their space on the right. the goons who represent the static regressive and reactionary forces led by Christopher, played with force and well sung by Rahul Pulkesia, occupy the top right and the rest of the stage.
Tom, dressed in a robe, looking like a cross between a king and Lawrence of Arabia, awaits his love of yesteryears Lushin. They recall their years in college in the ’70s. She reproaches him for escaping his responsibility. He counters her by asking her if she had overcome her overriding ambitions to achieve without being clear as to what she wanted. She unnerves him by saying that she was pregnant with his child when he left. Apparently, Christopher is that child.
Lushin is married to a drunk who has lost all his money in the recent depression. The role is played by Rubin Israel who belts out his songs of woe with great gusto. Their daughter is a lesbian and has a partner living in the hostel. The interaction between the mother and daughter, played by Avantika Ganguli, is a delicate exchange. At the behest of the father, the protectors of morals in society, the lathi-wielding goons attack and rape the two lesbians.
They then turn to the artists first, the man is attacked for looking foreign. The hippy way of life is condemned as poisoning Indian culture. Then the female artist’s painting exhibition rouses the ire of the goons. Anger that leads to setting the exhibition aflame is due to a painting which has sexual imagery. This painting is a realisation of the self in the art and she is aghast at the reaction of society. The goons attack her studio, her man and then they come for her.
These vignettes of life are well enacted especially by Lushin and Avantika and between Avantika and lover Vijiya Rathore. However, as a whole, the enactment is diffused with scenes played as individual enactments, taking the theme into the method of performance in a formalistic manner. It appears as if the scenes were separately rehearsed and then put together just before the show. This feeling is underlined by the lack of communication between Tom and the rest of the cast.
The actors are all effective, particularly Lushin whose quicksilver changes from a observer to participant are very well done. Avantika shows promise. The music does not go with the text or content of the play. There is nothing wrong with the band. The young players are Pink Floyd devotees and played music from his album The Wall. Here and there the situations matched the so-ngs, especially with Rubin’s character, but by and large there was a “sameness” to the music that palled soon.