Young director Rajesh Singh, who is a graduate from National School of Drama and has completed a course in theatre design and stage management from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, has been producing plays on a variety of genres. Creating an artistic whole by synthesizing thematic elements from some stories by Urdu writer Krishan Chander, Rajesh’s production of “Ek Qalam Sadak Kinare” was remarkable for bringing to life the progressive vision of the writer and the plight of the Indian masses. In this play he followed a realistic style to be in tune with the content described by the late writer in the stark realism.
His latest production of award winning play by British playwright Fin Kennedy titled “How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found” in Bhupesh Pandya’s Hindi translation, which was presented by Flying Feathers Art Association at NSD’s Sammukh auditorium this past week, is a break with his past presentational realistic style. In this production he takes elements from surrealism to portray an alienated man struggling in a mysterious world. His metaphysical anguish is caused by increasing domination of technology in society. In conflict with his environment, man finds his situation absurd and to secure a meaning in life he desperately tries to acquire a new identity.
The play opens on a bleak note. We watch on the screen high-rise buildings and introduced to Charlie, the central character of the play. He works in one of the offices located in these buildings. He is seen in one of the corners of a dimly-lit room. He is in a semi-conscious state and gradually gains consciousness. He is carrying a bag in which he has kept the ashes of his deceased mother to be immersed into a river. Cocaine is another object with him. He is possessive of these things. A weird looking man is sitting at some distance. Both indulge in conversation. Then we find him in a series of absurd situations. Being an executive, he addresses his staff. Confused and terror-stricken as he is, he deviates from the main topic and starts talking irrational and meaningless things. The staff boycott his meeting. Subsequently, he is charged with embezzlement. He is on the run. He wants to hide his identity and assume a new name, new address. He meets Mike, a mastermind to exploit the loopholes in the legal system of a modern State empowered with stringent laws and technological devices to bring to books the offenders.
On the advice of Mike, Charlie goes to a cemetery, discovers the grave of somebody named Adam. He goes to the school where Adam has studied and manages to get his birth certificate and now with this birth certificate he declares himself Adam, gets a credit card. Now he is Adam, Charlie is dead.
But the State is determined to punish him for his criminal acts. All his attempts to acquire a new identity tend to be futile. His past continues to haunt him. There are offstage sounds that cry out, “You are not Adam, you are Charlie.” Alone, he tries to protect himself from a hostile world.
True to the style of presentation, the production evokes an elegiac mood tinged with the sense of fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The past and present, the space and time and life and death become hazy and distorted. We watch morbid scene where a pathologist works on her table and talks with Charlie. We do not know whether she is talking to Charlie’s body or Charlie as a living person. Govind Singh Yadav’s lighting is imaginative which evokes the right mood and ambience. The offstage sounds symbolise the invasion of technology in human space which has menacing connotations.
It appears that “How to Disappear…” is play needs to be staged on a proscenium stage. Sammukh is an intimate theatre. The director has used video projection on the screen to highlight the urban concrete jungle and highly mechanized life style responsible for human alienation resulting in dehumanisation. But the projection is not effective enough to create the right impact.
In theatre all expressive ingredients should be synthesised into an artistic whole. Here in this production the projection tends to be a distraction.
The production tries to give a message –– man achieves happiness in doing small things in the daily life like sparing time to be with the elderly people. This conclusion appears to be incongruous with the character of the play which could be described as an allegory of the absurdity of human condition.
The cast members are mostly graduates from NSD with considerable experience of acting with eminent directors.
Teekam Joshi is a talented actor who has created many portraits in the past that have immensely impressed the audience. He plays the complex role of Charlie/Adam, creating telling images of his character in mysterious situations suffering from acute anxiety and sense of persecution with subtle strokes. Nitin G. Goel as Mike, who mocks at the system, blatantly exploiting the loopholes of the system, brings to his role agility and force. Souti Chakraborty, Nalini R. Joshi, Shauraya Shanker, Vishal and Nidhi Mishra in variety of roles impart tension to their scenes, making them riveting.
