Varied shades of Ashoka on stage

Staged as part of the retrospective of playwright Daya Prakash Sinha’s works, “Samrat Ashok” captures the emperor’s aggression as well as his vulnerable side with finesse

January 12, 2018 11:05 am | Updated 02:40 pm IST

 DRAWING FROM LIFE Actors performing a scene at “Samrat Ashok”

DRAWING FROM LIFE Actors performing a scene at “Samrat Ashok”

The six-day “Pratibha Natya Utsav” organised by Sumukha Natya Sanstha, Delhi recently at the National School of Drama featuring six plays by Daya Prakash Sinha, renowned Hindi playwright, is arguably the first attempt of its kind in recent years to revisit the dramatic works of a playwright written at different points of time over a period of nearly five decades. It could be described in a broader sense as a theatre retrospective. It is heartening to witness that the festival evoked tremendous response from the audience. The old-timers discovered something fresh and enriching in these productions which they have seen before. The young practitioners got acquainted with the dramatic craft of a veteran.

A retired IAS officer, Sinha's plays have been fascinating theatre directors as well as scholars of dramatic art over the years. Some of his plays including “Katha Ek Kans Ki”, “Samrat Ashok”, “Rakt Abhishek”, “Itihas Chakra”, “Saadar Aapka” and “Apne Apne Daon” are frequently staged in different regions of the country. Some of his plays have been translated into Kannada, Punjabi, Odiya and Marathi. His plays form part of curriculum of several universities and scholars have done their doctorate in his plays and young researchers are continuing their work on his dramaturgy.

Though he has written plays in different genres, scholars consider his plays based on history significant. As a student of history, he studies in depth historical references before writing. His long preface to his play “Samrat Ashok” analyses works on Ashok by eminent historians and Jatakas. Some of his characters are victims of their pathological ambition to climb the ladder up the top of the state power and after reaching to the top they gradually lose their human essence.

Recipient of several prestigious awards and honours including the award by Sangeet Natak Akademi for enriching contemporary Indian theatre as the playwright, the festival of his plays opens with “Saadar Aap Ka” (1976), which was presented by Manchkriti, Lucknow under the direction of Gopal Sinha.

Sorrowful home

Structurally will-knit, the play focuses on an unhappy home. The arrival of a young man as a guest from a small town brings to the fore the conflict between the husband and wife and the alienated and unhappy world of young daughter. The husband boasts of having the status of a gazetted officer and allottee of a big house and the wife flaunts her position in the local corporation occupying a high status. They live in separate rooms. They hardly communicate. Of course, the husband loses no opportunity to hurt his wife in an indirect manner. Their domestic help exploits the family at war against itself.

Through the interactions of the young guest with family members and their mean-minded visitors, we know the inner troubled life of the characters. The wife in chasing her dream of high status in society got promotion after promotion by allowing herself to be sexually exploited by those in authority. Living in the midst of estranged parents, the childhood of the daughter was unhappy and terribly lonely. She hates to talk to degenerated visitors of her parents and some of them try to seduce her. One of her father's friends has earlier relations with her mother and is now her father's friend.

In the climax, the girl finds in the young man from the small town her liberator and a true lover. The mother is transformed into an image of remorse, bitterly reflecting on her life of debauchery. The father in an attempt to project his false sense of superiority over his wife degraded himself as an incorrigibly alcoholic. The mad race for high status and wealth led the family to misery, moral bankruptcy and heartbreak.

Perhaps “Apne Apne Daon”(1963) was staged in Delhi for the first time in 1989 under the direction of J.P. Singh at Shri Centre basement with Saurabh Shukla, now Bollywood's popular actor, in lead comic role. A hilarious comedy, J.P. presented its several shows in different parts of the city. At the heart of the comedy is the wily old woman who creates the impression on the family members that she is super rich whose 'wealth' is kept in a trunk under lock and key and will give it to someone who loves and serves her most. The greed motivates family members to win over the old woman and grab her wealth. The way they over act to please the woman create comic situations, exposing their greed, forgetting family bonding. They have become arch rivals, employing all kinds of crafty acts to outsmart one another. The production is eminently comic with Sapna Basoya richly contributing to the comic rhythm of the production.

Produced by Ravi Shankar Khare and presented by Sanskar Bharti, Gorakhpur, “Samrat Ashok” (2004) is neat, slick and innovative. Directed by Ranjan Tripathi, a graduate from the NSD and an expert in theatre and music, the production explores the journey of Chandashok (Ashok) to the position of highest spiritual and political authority with the tile of Dhammashok, who reinforced Buddhism as symbol of peace, compassion and tolerance. To spread Bhuddhism, he made it a State religion and through pillar edicts spread the message of ahimsa far and wide, making it one of the religions of the world.

The play opens with Ashok with his Buddhist wife. Suffering from the complex of being ugly, he is angry, aggressive and desperate to grab the throne. He is hated by his father who wants to make his elder son his heir. Collaborating with Radhagupt, he usurped the empire from his critically ill father.

Blood and gore

To consolidate and expand the Maurya Empire, he kills his brother and indulges in bloody war against neighbouring countries. He is a tyrant and ruthless. The massacre that he indulges in pricked his conscience. He reflects on his life. Full of remorse, he accepts Buddhism with intense conviction, giving it the status of State religion, spending huge money on monasteries, squandering the wealth of the State. This enrages his minister Radhagupt, who with his wide network of spies, puts him in prison to protect the interests of the empire.

The production reveals various facets of the character of Ashok cohesively and logically. The character of Tishyarkshita, the royal physician whom Ashok married by force, emerges as a strong enemy of Ashok. When her conspiracy against him is exposed, the emperor orders that she be consigned to flames. Elaborate chorus conveys the core of Buddhism that runs underneath the intense dramatic conflict unleashed by dramatis personae with conflicting motives to pursue.

Adity Singh as Ashok gives admirable performance. Towards the denouement, Aditya's Ashok captures the image of a mellowed emperor in prison, retaining his human dignity and instinct for charity. His Ashok nurtures fond memory of his Buddhist wife who separated from him as soon as he indulged in ruthless killings to acquire State power. Sharad Srivastava in the role of Radhagupt creates a striking image of a bold minister who is loyal to the State rather than to the emperor who insists again and again that the emperor should not make any religion as State religion but treat all the religions equally. Another impressive performance is given by Dhani Gupta as Tishyarkshita, a strong-headed conspirator and malicious seductress.

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