Thrissur buzzed with activity as the year-end International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) came to town with its third edition, from December 22 to 31. The event brought 30 theatre groups from India and many parts of the world who showcased their repertoire to an appreciative and obviously theatre-thirsty audience
By Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan

The focus of 2010 edition was on Latin American theatre. In 2008, the focus was on Asian theatre while in 2009 the focus was on African theatre. In India, theare lovers rarely get to see Asian, African or Latin American theatre. The Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi, organizers of this festival, and late actor Murali, its chairman who gave shape to this festival, deserve accolades for their international vision and service to theatre in India.

Eleven teams were from countries such as Cuba, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom. The Indian teams were from Assam, Manipur, Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka. There were eight plays from Kerala also.

The festival brought about collaborations between Kerala and countries such as Spain and Chile. Performances resulting from these collaborative efforts were also part of the festival. Noteworthy were productions like Las Indias, a visual and interactive Latin American performance, Lila:The Rama's Play, a co-production between the Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi and Casa De La India and La Loba by Yasmin Jasdanwala and actor/director Jairo Vergara from Columbia. The influence of the mutually-beneficial cultural exchanges between Kerala and Latin American countries was obvious.

The selectors can only be lauded for the quality of the plays they chose for the festival, the foreign plays were of a very high standard. Special mention should be made of Visiones De La Cubanosofia from Cuba for its abstract and symbolic representation of the visions of a man who is a Cuban. Lawrencia, a solo dance theatre performance from Mexico by actress Eugenia Cano, who effectively combined contemporary dance and Kathakali rhythms, also deserves applause. En Un Sol Amarillo, from Bolivia, combined docu-play, physical theatre and comic burlesque to present an earthquake and its aftermath on stage.

In Tales of the Body, a solo dance theatre performance, actress Andrea Cruz from Spain played with scenic languages such as contemporary dance, butoh, objects manipulation -- all of which broke the usual schemes of space and movement.

Sisyphus Rock was a solo performance from Elia Cohen of Chile -- a surreal and visual exposition based on the myth of Sisyphus. Japan's Ugetsu Monogotari was a story of darkness and fear.

Of the Indian plays, remarkable were Quick Death by Sankar Venkateswaran and Strange Lines by Amitesh Grover. The plays from Assam and Manipur were redolent with soft music and movements, typical of the Kanhyalal-style of theatre. Due to the holidays declared on the death of Congress leader K. Karunakaran , staging of some of the Malayalam plays was not possible.

The technical assistance offered to the visiting theatre teams was of an international standard, with director Shankar Venkateswaran in charge of arrangements. The sound and light arrangements were excellent and the sub-titling for the foreign plays was efficient.

What took my breath away were the sets. The foreign teams did not have to bring any stage material for their sets. Everything was built and assembled in Thrissur. A regular workshop functioned behind the theatre, where artisans worked constantly to build the sets. The fact that a small town in Kerala is capable of providing such international-quality sets, lights and sound is indeed a matter of pride.

There were two open air and one closed auditoriums where the plays were staged. In addition, there was a small hall which was used for rehearsals and meetings such as the colloquia. The Sangeet Natak Akademi compound has large trees under which the Face-to-Face with the directors, and music and folk programmes were held on a regular basis.

The festival also allowed the audience to soak in the intellectual content of the plays and get enlightened on the technique and the culture of theatre worldwide. There was an air of debate, discussion and dialogue where important speakers interacted with the general audience. There were also classical as well as folk performances such as Kutiyattam and Kathakali to let the visitors acquaint themselves with Kerala's dance forms.

It would be remiss on my part if I did not mention the 1000-strong audience of Thrissur who came and saw these plays, day after day, at the 5 p.m, 7 p.m and 9 p.m shows. They watched the plays intently, in spell binding silence, with the élan of a seasoned international audience.

Grappling with the Graphic Novel

Amitesh Grover is a new media artiste and pedagogue. His play, Strange Lines, shown at the 3rd International Theatre Festival in Thrissur, is based on the graphic novel anthology When Kulbhushan met Stockli. This production seeks to play with the young art of the graphic novel, the theatricality of drawing and the ways in which drawing and theatre can come together to represent notions of home and away, nativity and foreignness.

Grover began his exploration of the graphic novel genre with literature. The style combines comic book expressions (but not fully) with a certain kind of grotesque and brutal quality. Saranath Banerjee from Kolkata is the bestknown Indian graphic novelist. His books mirror a contemporary Kolkata; he draws graphic pictures of his neighbours, super-heroes and even worms. Here, writing is combined with illustration, through drawings. Graphic novels seldom brings out a smile. On the contrary, there is much violence reflected in them. The graphic novel is often provocative, it is seldom meant to please. Manga Comics from Japan is a good example of the graphic novel.

Nineteen novelists have been working on a collaborative project between India and Switzerland for a period of two years, to write graphic novels and stories. They have been working in pairs, each pair consisting of one novelist from India and another from Switzerland. The result so far has been nineteen stories, out of which, Grover has chosen four for his production.

To a question as to why he went to graphic novels as a source material, Grover says that the postnineties generation of young theatre people, with an urban background, find the theatre pieces written by Indian playwrights inadequate and, therefore, unsatisfactory as expressions of the reality they are used to. So they approach alternate sources as narratives for their theatrical expressions. They resort to blogs on the internet, newspaper stories and any other available material.

He also says new theatre likes to take up non-narrative forms and create structures through improvisation and visualization. This also leads to employing other media, such as video clippings and drawings, as part of the production.

My main criticism of Grover's production is that the dialogues lack emotional appeal and for theatre, have a monotone quality associated with TV news reading. Grover accepts the criticism and says he is constantly seeking to increase the emotional impact and receive greater spontaneous reaction from his audience.

Grover is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. He completed his MA (Performance Arts) from the University of Arts, London and went on to focus on exploring the live interface between the body and media, in performance. He has 15 performances and mixed media installations to his credit, shown across six countries in a total of 90 shows. He is the recipient of several awards.

The Importance of Being Cuban

Nelda Castillo is an actor and director whose work represents an important milestone on the contemporary Cuban stage. Since 1984, she has done rigorous research on the actor's means and method of expression and the stage, exploring the ways in which the domain of acting, training, and techniques and the assembly process interact. In the process, she has created a poetic language, an idiom of expression capable of integrating and renovating the best contributions of Cuban tradition.

Her directorial venture at the ITFoK, Visiones De la Cubanosofia (Visions of Cubanosofia), depicts characters from the past and the present of Cuba, and creates a symbolic structure conformed by two scaffolds (one of construction and the other of support). The two iconic representatives Castillo has chosen are Jose Marti, the Cuba's national hero and the Virgin of Charity of Copper (patroness deity of Cuba).

There is another woman figure in her play, who represents the ordinary people. All of them integrate to make a questioning and reflexive mosaic of the Cuban reality.

The play attempts to reconnect with the essence and meaning of being a Cuban. Power, slavery, prostitution, frustration, arrogance, dementia, hallucination, shame, creation, endurance, loneliness, abandonment, absence…all form a part of the visions of a man who is the Cuban Being.

Asked about the primary archetypes around which the narrative of the play has been structured, Castillo talks about the importance of "necessity" in Cuban aesthetics. She goes on to explain that actors are not puppets, but human beings who are incited by ideas and concepts to express themselves.

Her first objective, she admits, in directing this play has been to tell the truth about Cuban history. Cubans are noted for their excellence in dance and song. Many think that Cubans are the best dancers and singers in the world. But, what are they really? The play is a search for that quintessential characteristics that makes a Cuban, typically a Cuban. In short, what is Cubanity, she wants to know.

In this search for Cubanity, the body or rather the memory of the body plays an important part in Castillo's scheme of the theatre. Through a search for the body and special training for the body, she hopes to find the expressions of memory and perform.

She then goes on to talk about her method of training. Seventy per cent of the training is what an actor has to undergo as common training. The remaining 30 per cent will always be special to the specific production that is undertaken.

Regarding the structure of the play, she claims she has in principle avoided history. Narration of history is usually done by the winner/victor. Seldom do the peoples' voice get a chance of being heard. Again, the general idea of a colonized nation like Cuba comes from the archetypal creations of foreigners. So, her aim through this play is to demystify Cuban history and tell the truth about Cuba's past. It all starts with pain, all the contrasting types of pain – "the shout for all times, the scream from ancient times to now". It is a mark for all times to come. Cuban identity is sought through the history and memory of the body.

In this attempt Jose Marti alone has a name, the rest are nameless characters. Marti represents the soul of the nation. He is the observer in silence, who sees what happens at present.

The question as to who Marti is and what he represents forms the essence of the play. He is a national hero – poet, writer, wise man, beloved of the people, yet manipulated by them also. He organized the war of Independence in 1875 and 1898 and was in jail for 17 years. The actor who represents Marti starts from the floor and reaches all levels of consciousness through spiral and suspended movements. He represents the 'Cuban', he lives all their sufferings, pains and he returns to liberate Cuba.

Asked about her specific training process, Castillo explains that the training starts with the identification of the actors' bodies. She believes that the identity of the nation is written within the bodies of the actors.

Special training consists of recognizing the energy of an actor's body. Trance is used often in this process. The first exercise is a walk through the streets by the actors. After reading or talking about different subjects, the actors go walking in the streets. They begin their training with observations of the reality, as reflected in the streets. They often use tape recorders to tape conversations with people in the streets. After that, they read books and other sources to investigate the code that gives reality a symbolic way of expression.

Music also plays an important part in Castillo's productions. The music in the actor's body complements other music and the movements of the actors. She does not work with musicians for specific music scores. Musicians do not have the patience to create original music. So any kind of music, which is suited to the movements and the language of the body, is chosen for the play.

The snake within within

The play directed by Madoko Okada, Ugetsu Monogatari (The Lust of the Serpent), staged at the ITFoK is a story of darkness and fear inside the human mind. Toyoo, the hero, is fascinated by Manago, a serpent-woman who belongs to another world. He tries his best to get rid of her, but in the end realizes that he loves her howsoever she may be and her love for him is eternal and true.

Asked why he chose this story, which is based on a traditional 10th century myth, Okada says that one reasons why he chose this story is in order to reintroduce the earlier value system among the younger people of Japan who were losing their traditional knowledge and wisdom.

This is a common story taught in schools and, therefore, known to most people. It is a story based on the supernatural, but it is not a typical story. The source of death and the spirit are different from other classical stories.

Okada believes that the theatrical space is different from the reality of human life, and the function of theatre is to represent something different from reality. In this story, the serpent representsthe supernatural spirit.

He then talks of the principles of Japanese theatre. Japanese theatre pursues aesthetics in stylisation in each and every element concerning the stage, including in the visual elements such as stage design and costumes, as well as for the drama and acting elements.

The artiste's way of expression is based on the traditional Japanese theatre method, especially in the typical movements such as standing, sitting, walking, with a sprinkling of western-style expression thrown in. In other words, Okada manages to creates an original expression from this fusion.

Linguistically, the emphasis is on the intonation, stress and pitches -- typical and unique to the Japanese language. Like in traditional Japanese theatre, the nuance of the word is recomposed and broken to suit the character.

Stylistically too, the traditional Japanese methods is maintained but various other styles are adopted to lend a certain modernity to the work, a synthesis arrived at by assimilation of several styles.

Asked why he chose to have four actors play the role of the serpent woman, Okada explains, she is the supernatural spirit, the dynamics of four bodies work better to depict her. The next question is why is one of the women played by a man? Okada says this is "to break the regularity of theatrical expression and add an element of surprise" by mixing the male and female energies and body movements.

On the use of umbrellas as a theatrical prop, he says that the original title of the play is Tales of the Moon and the Rain and as rain plays an important part in the narrative, the umbrella protecting a person from rain also comes in as a natural factor.

When I point out that we in India are very familiar with stories involving snakes as spirits, through snake worship, the dance form known as 'Sarpam Tullal' and plays like Girish Karnad's 'Nagamandala', Okada acknowledges that he is aware of this and it is precisely why he chose to bring this play to Kerala.

Madoko Okada is a great nephew of Noburu Ogawa, the founder and president of the Lighting Designers & Engineers Association of Japan. His mother is a classical singer. He has been influenced by Shogo Shimada and his Shingeki-style of theatre and has been on stage since the age of six. He studied Noh, Pantomime, Commedia dell'arte, contemporary dance, traditional Japanese dance and other Japanese traditional theatres such as Kabuki and Kagura. He has been awarded the best director prize at the 2007 Toga directors' contest

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