Some very ordinary, day to day life sounds, which can hardly be called musical, were used in the play magnificently to create a music that was theatrical and penetrating at the same time. The body movements and the silences had their own music which was in perfect harmony with the vocals and the music in the dialogues.
Guna
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Doorway- Music/Vocal vs. The Body
While watching this play I had a strong feeling that the Body of the lone actor, a well trained one at that, fall short on connectivity with the vocal pieces that were picked from a particular folk tradition. Moreover, I had a strong feeling that the Body, an athletic one, had less internal music working inside it. The experience would have been of altogether a different dimension if the Body's music had been able to create a harmony with the songs that were used.
Guna
Guna
Bol Senai Taloike - A Response
Bidyawati Phukon designed the music of the play, Bol Senai Taloike, in such a way that it remained true to the spirit of the village -folk of Assam whose lives are emerged in the music they breath and live. The glimses of their lives that were depicted apparently discreetly in the play, were in fact connected by a hidden and strong thread of music of the soil. The actors, who are coming of the same soil, had music in their bodies. It was, in fact, the prime factor which gave the experience of the play a different dimension of musicality.
Guna
Guna
TILT and THE DOORWAY
FROM COMMUNICATION TO EXPRESSION
As I’d mentioned in my earlier posthttp://brm2010.blogspot.com/2010_01_11_archive.html, I’m not sure whether to herald or mourn the passing of theatre’s dependency on the classic playtext, increasingly visible in several productions. With this passing, several other changes have to be accepted as well. For one, the definitions of theatre are widening, with labels like ‘performance text’, ‘devised pieces’, ‘improvised pieces’, and even ‘choreographed pieces’ becoming more common to define certain kinds of theatre work. And it’s not just a question of labels and definitions. It’s everything from the content to the nature of the performance, and even basic principles and parameters governing the act of theatre.
While watching Jyoti Dogra’s performance in THE DOORWAY for instance, a line that I’d once read somewhere kept playing in my head: “I have a self to express”. In the case of THE DOORWAY it was the actor’s self, thus turning the actor into the subject rather than the medium through which the text is communicated to the audience. But more than that it signaled another shift in the very fundamental principles of theatre, although a subtle one – vis a shift in the emphasis from communication to expression. If the idea of the conventional playtext was often to tell a story, to communicate an idea, now the focus seems to be more on expressing. That is not to say that the basic principle of getting across to the audience is disregarded; just that the need to express is sometimes a tad bit more than the desire to communicate something.
This distinction between expressing and communicating is subtle but important. It implies, for one, that in such works of theatre the scales are titled a bit more towards the personal than the social or communal; that the act of theatre it turning its eye inward, towards the theatre-makers themselves rather than their audiences or their society. This is not in any way intended to be a value-loaded criticism; it is just the observation of a phenomenon. And nor is this phenomenon new; it’s just that it is becoming more visible and gaining acceptability.
And yet, after the performance a TILT, I overheard a member of the audience ask what such a production was doing at a theatre festival. A multimedia piece choreographed by Anusha Lall and involving four dancer-performers, a percussionist and visual projection, TILT too was more about expressing through body and rhythm than about communicating a subject. I found the piece essentially theatrical, although in the absence of a verbalized or overtly physicalized text it was difficult to say what exactly the production was about. And even though I doubt very much if there was a single coherent conceptual thread running through the piece, yet it was clear that there was often a strong subtext running through the performers’ minds. This was visible through the varying degrees of tension in their bodies, their visual focus, and occasionally, through the controlled expressions on their faces. Personally, I was left with the feeling that this could have been made clearer if they’d worked with a little more enjoyment and abandonment and a degree less of control. What I found interesting, though, was the manner in which they dialogued with each other and reacted to the percussionist through the medium of strong footwork; you could get a sense of action and reaction, of point and counter-point at work. There was some attempt at interacting with the visual material projected on the floor of their performance space, but this needed to be better worked out.
Although content did take some flak in the absence of a text, all considering, I would include TILT as a piece of theatre. Maybe its time broaden the boundaries of what constitutes theatre, to accept its multi and inter-disciplinary threads. There was a time in the recent past when much modern Indian theatre placed the playwright’s text at the centre of the performance. Now, in the absence of the emergence of good contemporary playwrighting, it’s time to legitimize shifting focuses within the discipline of theatre and not derogatorily or patronizingly dismiss works with such shifts as pieces of personal or experimental indulgence.
- Scherazade Kaikobad
As I’d mentioned in my earlier posthttp://brm2010.blogspot.com/2010_01_11_archive.html, I’m not sure whether to herald or mourn the passing of theatre’s dependency on the classic playtext, increasingly visible in several productions. With this passing, several other changes have to be accepted as well. For one, the definitions of theatre are widening, with labels like ‘performance text’, ‘devised pieces’, ‘improvised pieces’, and even ‘choreographed pieces’ becoming more common to define certain kinds of theatre work. And it’s not just a question of labels and definitions. It’s everything from the content to the nature of the performance, and even basic principles and parameters governing the act of theatre.
While watching Jyoti Dogra’s performance in THE DOORWAY for instance, a line that I’d once read somewhere kept playing in my head: “I have a self to express”. In the case of THE DOORWAY it was the actor’s self, thus turning the actor into the subject rather than the medium through which the text is communicated to the audience. But more than that it signaled another shift in the very fundamental principles of theatre, although a subtle one – vis a shift in the emphasis from communication to expression. If the idea of the conventional playtext was often to tell a story, to communicate an idea, now the focus seems to be more on expressing. That is not to say that the basic principle of getting across to the audience is disregarded; just that the need to express is sometimes a tad bit more than the desire to communicate something.
This distinction between expressing and communicating is subtle but important. It implies, for one, that in such works of theatre the scales are titled a bit more towards the personal than the social or communal; that the act of theatre it turning its eye inward, towards the theatre-makers themselves rather than their audiences or their society. This is not in any way intended to be a value-loaded criticism; it is just the observation of a phenomenon. And nor is this phenomenon new; it’s just that it is becoming more visible and gaining acceptability.
And yet, after the performance a TILT, I overheard a member of the audience ask what such a production was doing at a theatre festival. A multimedia piece choreographed by Anusha Lall and involving four dancer-performers, a percussionist and visual projection, TILT too was more about expressing through body and rhythm than about communicating a subject. I found the piece essentially theatrical, although in the absence of a verbalized or overtly physicalized text it was difficult to say what exactly the production was about. And even though I doubt very much if there was a single coherent conceptual thread running through the piece, yet it was clear that there was often a strong subtext running through the performers’ minds. This was visible through the varying degrees of tension in their bodies, their visual focus, and occasionally, through the controlled expressions on their faces. Personally, I was left with the feeling that this could have been made clearer if they’d worked with a little more enjoyment and abandonment and a degree less of control. What I found interesting, though, was the manner in which they dialogued with each other and reacted to the percussionist through the medium of strong footwork; you could get a sense of action and reaction, of point and counter-point at work. There was some attempt at interacting with the visual material projected on the floor of their performance space, but this needed to be better worked out.
Although content did take some flak in the absence of a text, all considering, I would include TILT as a piece of theatre. Maybe its time broaden the boundaries of what constitutes theatre, to accept its multi and inter-disciplinary threads. There was a time in the recent past when much modern Indian theatre placed the playwright’s text at the centre of the performance. Now, in the absence of the emergence of good contemporary playwrighting, it’s time to legitimize shifting focuses within the discipline of theatre and not derogatorily or patronizingly dismiss works with such shifts as pieces of personal or experimental indulgence.
- Scherazade Kaikobad
LIGHT DESIGN AND SPACE
12th Bharat Rang Mahotsav offered oppurtunity to witnesse relationship between space and light design.The unusual design of the spaces for the play provoked light designers to design in different way. e .g light designer JOSE KOSHI for SPINAL CORD, used [20/25] 100 walts bulbs, which not only illuminated the actors but very dramitacally created ambiance for the play.
while watching DOOR WAYS ,Spots on T-stand were next to me which was source of energy not only for actor but also for me as a viwer. This i have never experienced in proscenium ,where we not only try to hide illuminators but also ,it cuts audiance from performers. while at the same time illusion of road created through light design in JOHNNY'S MIDNIGHT GOGGLES was icebreaking. The way in which colours and angles were used in this play were enriching the energy and flow of the narrator.
-- to be continue
--vishnu
12th Bharat Rang Mahotsav offered oppurtunity to witnesse relationship between space and light design.The unusual design of the spaces for the play provoked light designers to design in different way. e .g light designer JOSE KOSHI for SPINAL CORD, used [20/25] 100 walts bulbs, which not only illuminated the actors but very dramitacally created ambiance for the play.
while watching DOOR WAYS ,Spots on T-stand were next to me which was source of energy not only for actor but also for me as a viwer. This i have never experienced in proscenium ,where we not only try to hide illuminators but also ,it cuts audiance from performers. while at the same time illusion of road created through light design in JOHNNY'S MIDNIGHT GOGGLES was icebreaking. The way in which colours and angles were used in this play were enriching the energy and flow of the narrator.
-- to be continue
--vishnu
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