After completing her M.Phil. thesis on the changes witnessed by Bhavai, the folk theatre form of Gujarat, Swati decided to change track from academics to performance. Having finished a full year’s theatre training from Act One theatre group in Delhi, Swati moved to Mumbai in 2011 to pursue a career in acting.Since then, she has acted in many plays in multiple languages. One of her longest-running plays is THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. Her recent stage performances include William Shakespeares KING LEAR and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, as well as Mahesh Dattani's SNAPSHOTS OF A FERVID SUNRISE. She is now acting in an audio play, A LITTLE DRAPE OF HEAVEN, written and directed by Mahesh Dattani.
By Parul Rana
What is the concept of the play? It is a pre-recorded audio play, which is basically about a saree, a patola saree to be specific. Patola is a style of weaving that comes from a particular part of Gujarat. The Patola saree is the protagonist of the play. The theme revolves around the relationship between a saree that has been locked up in the cupboard for so many years and a little boy who decides to pull it out, play with it and drape it. What is important is that he has to do this in secrecy, he can't do this in public, since it's not an acceptable thing for a boy to drape a saree. So, it's a secret relationship between the saree and the boy.
Take us through your rehearsal process. How is the preparation different when it comes to an audio play? How did the lockdown affect your practice? Due to the pandemic, there were no in-person rehearsals; most of the rehearsals were on Zoom which kind of made it very interesting because the final product of the play is also someone listening through the medium of technology. So, I remember, on Zoom, since the video was not so important Mahesh sir used to just listen to me, and he would guide and take me through the process. This was also the first time I was rehearsing on Zoom, so it was a very unique rehearsal process. Since this is an audio play, technology really became important here. In the final rehearsals, we had Karan Talwar with us, who is handling the sound of the play. With Karan coming in we had input on the sound in terms of how much my distance should be from the mic. There are very intimate moments where I have to be closer to the mic, there are loud moments where I have to be physically away from the mic, so these technical things came in during the last leg of rehearsals. So overall the rehearsals have been a mix of both, physical and technology-driven.
The lockdown has really affected my practice and I am sure I speak for all theatre artists here. Theatre is about being physically present in a room with your director and co-actors. It's about breathing the same air, that's how the energy elevates itself. What happened in the pandemic, the physical space went missing and that has been the tragedy of all theatre artists. Some of us have managed to shift to the digital-driven theatre. It has affected us emotionally and financially. Also, the other thing is when you're constantly doing theatre, you are constantly rehearsing, it's like a riyaaz. When you are not practicing on stage, and you don't get a chance to play in front of the live audience, then it takes a toll on your craft as well.
What inspired you to take up with the project? First of all, Mahesh Dattani is such a fantastic writer. I knew that I could just blindly get into this. Another exciting thing for me as an actor was that I could play a part of an inanimate object. As an actor you have to think about, how do you play it, how do you infuse the characteristics into the non-living thing. An actor usually goes with the flow of the words and the voice sort of comes along the way. So, Mahesh sir helped me along the way. We used rasas like Shringar Rasa, Veer Rasa, and different kinds of bhavas. We were playing with that and that's how the voice of the saree came along while using the rasa theory.
What can the audience look forward to taking away with them from this play? It would be about the relationship with the objects. Also, the idea of keeping secrets is very important to the play. The whole play is a secret between the saree and the boy. They exchange secrets. We share our lives very much with the people but at the same, we also share it with the very ordinary objects that are around us.
I would also like to mention here, Mahesh Dattani, through his words, has beautifully managed to bring in the social context, cultural context, history, and the tradition associated with this piece of cloth. It takes 10 months and about 10-15 weavers to make one saree. So, it's a very exclusive and very special piece of cloth -- this patola saree. All of which he has conveyed through the story in a very beautiful and subtle way through his words. So that's something else for the audience to look forward to in the play.
*Parul Rana is a theatre enthusiast and movie buff.
