In a markedly different theatre production, Thook explores issues of food, trade and hunger. Written by Irawati Karnik and Sandeep Shikhar, Thook is in Urdu and Hindi, in which a series of vignettes that range from the satirical to the documentary, are presented to bring home the stark reality of the impact of neo-liberal reforms on the economic policies of India. The play is a part of the Hunger Trade project, an international theatre network, commissioned by SchauSpielHaus Hamburg.
Abhishek Majumdar, the director, speaks of how the play was created.
“Clemens Bechtel, the artistic director of the Hunger for Trade project, got in touch with theatre groups from across the world. I chose to be a part of it as I had also always wanted to address the Bengal Famine in my work.”
The play also provides a glimpse in the severely under-reported food riots in West Bengal in 2008.
Speaking about vignettes in the play, Abhishek says: “One of the stories is about three children, locked in a godown during the food riots. It’s about what goes on in their minds while the riots happen. In another story that occurs simultaneously, a lady, who works in the commodity market, finds that her cat goes missing. So there’s a hunt to find it.
“The juxtaposition of both stories shows her isolation from what is happening around her.
“Another story is about Winston Churchill’s Indian cook who thinks he is a great man and defends his policy of not feeding Indians.
“Ironically, just as Churchill had fed rice to British soldiers instead of the people of India, in modern India too, rice has been exported to Europe to feed cattle and food has rotted away in godowns.”
For research, Abhishek and his team interviewed economists, food security analysts, right to food activists, cooks, chefs, pregnant women from different backgrounds, students of the Dhirubhai Ambani School and Aaghaaz, a theatre group for children from the Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi.
“Through our research, we found how food when traded as a commodity in the European market affects a small village in West Bengal. What we eat and drink is so much of a political act.”
Hunger must be seen through the prism of politics. “Invariably the invisible hand will be accompanied by the invisible fist, writes Adam Smith.
Invisible fist is a powerful concept. The choice is between knowing that our debate in society needs to be bigger than ‘I deserve more’. It needs to be about what is absolutely essential for everyone. Why does food need to be used as a trading commodity? Just by being born a person is an equal shareholder of the earth’s resources.”
Thook , presented by Deutsches SchauSpielHaus, Riad Mahmood Education and Arts Foundation and Indian Ensemble, will be staged on May 27 and May 28 at 7.30 pm at Ranga Shankara and on May 30 and May 31 at 7.30 pm at Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan.
Tickets are priced at Rs. 200 and are available at Ranga Shankara and on bookmyshow.com.
