When Samuel Becket’s Waiting For Godot was staged in a Los Angeles prison and received standing ovation, it reiterated the knowledge that theatre and the arts were a powerful tool in rehabilitation. The work of theatre teacher and practitioner, Nandita Dinesh is based on this. She specialises in the use of theatre in conflict zones and has recently concluded work with prisoners in New Mexico. The hostile zones of Rwanda, Uganda, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Peru, Guatemala, Nagaland and currently Kashmir have derived solace from her theatre practices. “Theatre cannot be a solution to the conflict but it can be a huge part of the solution. What it can do is provide a kind of nuanced complexity which other mediums find hard to do. Of course, the medium can be used to wrong effect, as to brainwash, but I am not into imparting any moral lessons,” says Nandita who was in the city to conduct a workshop in St. Teresa’s College. Her latest work and which she is most passionate about is in Kashmir. Titled ‘Grey Zones- Performances, Perspectives and Possibilities in Kashmir’, the work began in 2009 and is expected to be staged in 2020 with a 24-hour performance in the popular promenade theatre form. The form uses sight specific settings, in this case a 10-room house where a guided tour will take audiences through the different perspectives of the conflict.
Using immersive theatre, in an earlier production, she had Kashmiri actors dress like women and live the life of a woman in Kashmir. A spectator confessed that he had hitherto never been alive to the gender realities of the land, but the play had made him feel and think differently.
Currently subsumed by this project, it is the driving force in her scheme of things. She is excited by the experiments in the form, the multiple narratives, the telling and the projected 24 hour performance. Collaborating with local group ‘EKTA’ (Ensemble Kashmir Theatre Akademi) Nandita has slowly worked around the conflict, working with actors who present the voices of the soldier, the militant, and the common man caught in the crossfire. “Kashmir is tough because I am not a complete outsider but I am an insider-outsider. For me it is far more personal than other regions where I have worked. I love Kashmir. It is tough work but I have made great friends and colleagues. As an outside figure I become a useful tool,” she says implying that her neutrality enables afflicted sides and vox populi to frankly speak their mind. Theatre allows that license, she says. In one of her projects she interviewed an ex-militant, while in others she had soldiers, army cadets and police enacting their versions of the narrative. “The goal has always been to hear all sides,” she says.
A resident of Coimbatore, Nandita studied in America and is proud of her alma mater, Wellesley College in Massachusetts, “where Democrat leader Hillary Clinton studied,” and went on to study Economics and Math. But it was a chance introduction to theatre in a Liberal Arts programme that changed her course forever. “That was it,” she says on her impromptu choice.
She studied Applied Theatre, which addresses issues faced by communities and began teaching. “There is Theatre for Development, Jana Sankriti in West Bengal, Street Theatre…these are all forms of Applied Theatre and clearly there is space for this. We see that it definitely leaves an impression between collaborators and spectators,” she says adding that making a living off theatre is still not easy. Politics, by its sheer volatile presence in the background, becomes an element in her work that she has had to deal with. Nandita plays neutral. “My theatre is closely connected to politics but I don’t take a position. I listen to multiple sides and it does not mean that I condone what they are doing, like what historian Christopher Browning says- Explaining is not excusing, understanding is not forgiving. ”
Her work has mainly been produced and staged in hostile scenarios, sometimes active war zones, which she sees as her “forte”. Rwanda, her first region of work was tough, being a maiden project. In Northern Ireland she faced racial slurs making it one of the hardest stages to work on. “Kashmir too is hard,” she says but finds an emotional bond with the people.
It is her dream project and she hopes that her art will provide catharsis for all the stake holders and give non-Kashmiri a theatrical expression into the reasons why these conflicts have been going on for so long.
