As the 11th edition of the META (Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards) festival gears up to present its 10 chosen plays over 300 entries from all over India, we take the opportunity to conduct a quick round of questions with 8 of the directors whose plays will be staged at the festival in Delhi from 5th to 10th March.
By MTG editorial
Mumbai Theatre Guide: Congratulations for being selected for META. What are your thoughts at the moment? Deepan Sivaraman [Director, THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI]: That we perform in META.
Goutam Haldar [Director, HAOI]: I'm very thrilled, excited and looking forward towards META - which is a very, very important theatre festival. I think it's one of the most popular, most attractive, most innovative theatre festivals in India.
Sasidharan Naduvil [Director, THE BALCONY]: We are very much excited to know that we got a second chance in META, one of the best theatre awards in India, and we are the only team in Kerala to get selected for the second term. At the same time we are sensing a bit of tension here due to some changes in the original cast. We are now having some new faces in important character roles, and rehearsals are in the final stage. Even though this is the situation, we are still looking forward to the performance, and we are aware that this will be a big moment for each one of us.
Vikram Mohan [Director, AFTER DEATH - THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY]: I am feeling great and good. It's a great moment for me.
Faezeh Jalali [Director, 07/07/07]: We are humbled and happy that our hard work has been recognised.
Akash Khurana [Director, A FRIEND'S STORY]: It's nice to be participating again.
Sharanya Ramparakash [Director, AKSHAYAMBARA]: We're excited to be at META. We're looking forward to performing in Delhi and watching the other plays, which will be staged at the festival with ours.
S Murugaboopathy [Director, KUHAIMARAVASIGAL (CAVE TREE DWELLERS)]: Our play, and theatre, is based on all that is marginalized, be it bodies, art or craft. Everything is from that space. The politics of the marginalised is expressed through art form in our play. We are happy that being selected for META gives us a major ground for this expression. In general, there is limited space, a fixed boundary, within mainstream society, art and theatre. To transgress this, cross this boundary, is the play, with the body as the text, a foremost text. The mainstream cannot catch the marginal. It is only possible through the theatre space, to cross the colonial mindset.
Mumbai Theatre Guide:What was the best thing about directing this production? Deepan Sivaraman [Director, THE BALCONY]: (Laughs) The best thing about directing the production- various things, no one thing can be called best; various things are best in it. Best thing about the production is when you make art, you engage the society, engage with a group of artists, with groups like the Performance Studies Collective. It is always good to work with various people, and it is a work that people enjoy, see, and say it's a good piece of work.
Goutam Haldar [Director, HAOI]: This is a theatre of madness, and the 3 characters in the play are also called 'mad' persons. The best bit about this production is searching madness in myself, in my co-actors, in the society, and in dreams.
Sasidharan Naduvil [Director, THE BALCONY]: Actually this play has been there in my mind since I directed another play of Jean Genet called THE DEATH WATCH ", almost 25 years back. I really got attracted to the over dramatic situations and absurd face of real life in Genet's Plays. To direct this play, I have read every play of Genet and of Sartre's, and referred to many videos and books about Genet and "The Balcony". It was really a lifetime experience to deal with European Drama, which has the strangest face in world theatre.
Vikram Mohan [Director, AFTER DEATH - THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY]: The process going through from beginning to end - the designing, scripting, research work, everything is very interesting.
Faezeh Jalali [Director, 07/07/07]: Working with this group of actors to bring this particular story to life.
Akash Khurana [Director, A FRIEND'S STORY]: Working with an amazing bunch of actors.
Sharanya Ramparakash [Director, AKSHAYAMBARA]: The production brought two worlds together - the world of Yakshagana and modern theatre and this synthesis created work whose meaning rang greater than the sum of its parts.
S Murugaboopathy [Director, KUHAIMARAVASIGAL (CAVE TREE DWELLERS)]: In our play, music, props, voice, etc. comes from different spaces, crossing boundaries to come together in one space. To universalise the native is the full effort of the play. In particular, vocals from cultural roots erase borders, as proven in the play.
Mumbai Theatre Guide: What challenges, if any, did you face? Deepan Sivaraman [Director, THE BALCONY]: Nothing really.
Goutam Haldar [Director, HAOI]: You see, everybody in the society, even in a so-called 'sane' society, has a trace of madness in them, but they hide it. At least most of them do. So my challenge was to find how the madness works and what madness really means. Does it mean that whom we call 'mad' actually are the sanest people in this world? So that was my search and that was my challenge. In terms of the production, it is a place of reality and is also an abstract. You've got to understand the reality and the unreal as well as the surreal.
Sasidharan Naduvil [Director, THE BALCONY]: It was a real challenge in my life to trim out a 90 minutes play from the masterpiece, which could be played for at least 4 hours. But when I became successful with the scripting part, I felt confident to complete the production in a good way. The second challenge was casting since every character in this play is important in the aspect of physical appearance. But at last I have got some well-experienced fellow artists to perform them. Now I am satisfied.
Vikram Mohan [Director, AFTER DEATH - THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY]: I faced many challenges because I did not have money when I started this production. I started arranging money slowly to create this production. It's a very spiritual kind of production and when you do that kind of production, it sometimes disturbs you or sometimes makes you happy. Last time I performed this play, many tings happened to me.
Faezeh Jalali [Director, 07/07/07]: Mostly monetary. The team worked continuously for 6 months without pay. Also certain details about Reyhaneh's case were unclear, and hard to find for the play.
Akash Khurana [Director, A FRIEND'S STORY]: Doing justice to a complex classic by Vijay Tendulkar.
Sharanya Ramparakash [Director, AKSHAYAMBARA]: I think I've managed most things - research, training, translation, play-writing, choreography, casting, composing, directing, dancing, fighting, collaborating...but interviews...those are tough :)
S Murugaboopathy [Director, KUHAIMARAVASIGAL (CAVE TREE DWELLERS)]: A major challenge facing us is not enough finance. But the actors go beyond this. Art is the activity that keeps us safe; it protects us. Also, in plays, usually there are sets, but we believe in the body, and so it becomes a very big challenge in the mainstream space to bring in all the insects and animals into our plays.
Mumbai Theatre Guide: If you were to summarise your play in one sentence, what would you say? Deepan Sivaraman [Director, THE BALCONY]: I can't summarise the play in one sentence.
Goutam Haldar [Director, HAOI]: If I have a dream and if I want to go towards it, I have to have a little madness in me.
Sasidharan Naduvil [Director, THE BALCONY]: I am in love with the last words of Madame Irma, who is one of the main characters in the play, which is enough to summarise the total message of the play. IRMA: "This is a false place, you must now go home- you can be quite sure- will be falser than here...!"
Vikram Mohan [Director, AFTER DEATH - THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY]: It is a piece of artwork.
Faezeh Jalali [Director, 07/07/07]: 07/07/07- is a devised piece that uses movement, choreography, light and shadow to tell the story of Reyhaneh Jabbari: imprisoned, tortured and hanged for stabbing the man who was trying to rape her.
Akash Khurana [Director, A FRIEND'S STORY]: Essentially a love triangle, A FRIEND'S STORY is Vijay Tendulkar's understated 'Greek tragedy' about obsession, jealousy, betrayal, and a search for redemption.
Sharanya Ramparakash [Director, AKSHAYAMBARA]: AKSHAYAMBARA is an experimental Kannada play that uses the tools of modern theatre and the dance drama form of Yakshagana to raise questions on ownership, morality, power and gender.
S Murugaboopathy [Director, KUHAIMARAVASIGAL (CAVE TREE DWELLERS)]: As the world turns into one huge refugee tent, with everyone losing their language, and with seeds, trees and culture based on this also being forgotten, being erased from memory, our performance makes this realisation in one (theatre) land.
Mumbai Theatre Guide: How do you describe yourself as a director? Deepan Sivaraman [Director, THE BALCONY]: I am a director who works with scenography.
Goutam Haldar [Director, HAOI]: I became director out of compulsion. Basically, I want to be an actor. Destiny made me a director, but my work as a director is to create an atmosphere in which my co-actors will feel free, and will not be afraid of me. Normally, people don't feel liberated, especially in a society like ours. They always become cautious. But with my actors, I want them to be creative. I have to give them an atmosphere in which they will not be afraid to do such things, which are commonly not considered normal.
Sasidharan Naduvil [Director, THE BALCONY]: I am from a lower middle class family and didn't get the chance to have a good academic education. My teacher was Jose Chirammel from whom I got my preliminary education in theatre. Even though I have been in the theatre field for the last 40 years, still I could learn a little bit of it. I have trained around 3000 people up till now with my plays. As a director, I still try to read different literature texts from around the world and imagine the theatre possibilities. I cannot live without theatre.
Vikram Mohan [Director, AFTER DEATH - THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY]: There's a drive to learn directorship so it's a turning process. I don't know when this process will finish.
Faezeh Jalali [Director, 07/07/07]: An actor's director.
Akash Khurana [Director, A FRIEND'S STORY]: Precise and Empathetic.
Sharanya Ramparakash [Director, AKSHAYAMBARA]: It was the first time I was directing as well as performing in a play that I had written. I think I would be best described as a director with a multiple personality disorder.
S Murugaboopathy [Director, KUHAIMARAVASIGAL (CAVE TREE DWELLERS)]: A director without a director's consciousness who brings an alternative culture to mainstream culture in a creative space.
