Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Not quite the dream
|
It is admirable that the young theatre group, Working Title, has attempted a political play of this sort. The production highlighted the potential for great drama that exists here
|
Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
wonderful earthiness The production convincingly used the folk form, despite all performers being urban and English speaking
Often a play that falls short of expectations by a whisker is more disappointing than a wholly mediocre one. So it was that one wished Working Title’s rendition of Chandrashekar Kambar’s “Thukra’s Dream” (Thukrana Kanasu
) could have gone just that extra mile.
Staged as part of the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival ’07, the Jaimini Pathak-directed play translates into English and Hindi, Dr. Kambar’s examination of the outsider and the nature of revolution. Based on the short story “The True Story of Ah Q” by Lu Xun, “Thukra’s Dream” follows the ups and downs of Thukra, a marginalised outsider in his village. Thukra believes himself empowered because of his imagined resistances to his oppression by the rest of his village, his “spiritual victories”.
Lu Xun’s study of the feudal order in China, relatively unchanged by the clash with modern ideologies, is invested with the additional layers of caste hierarchies and the alleged pro-status quo nature of the Indian freedom struggle by Kambar.
In it, the village fool Thukra continually tries to overcome the shackles of his marginalised life: from trying to claim shared lineage with the Patila, to picking on those seemingly less fortunate than him, to co-opting the idea of revolution for his gains. But all plans come to naught and Thukra’s life falls prey to the social hegemony that shows no change with the coming of the freedom movement.
What was perhaps most interesting about Working Title’s production of the play was the convincing use of the folk form, despite all the performers being urban and English speaking. There was a wonderful earthiness to the whole production, which was particularly well-reflected in the fact that the English lyrics worked just as well as those in Hindi over the folksy tunes. The actors carried a strong and energetic vibe throughout the play, more so during the tighter, punchier first act. A mention must be made about the absolutely spot-on lighting as well as the simple set design of four wooden frames used to represent the various spaces of the village such as the cemetery, the temple, the Patila’s house and so on: the latter giving the play a nice bit of flourish.
As far as the content of the production went, one felt this “Thukra’s Dream” played more to the letter of the story than the spirit of it. Thus, if one reads Lu Xun’s short story, one can see that the play hit all the right narrative points of the original story. Moreover, the play also paid enough attention to the dominant theme of the play, stressing to just the right degree, the failed or false revolution.
However, nuances such as the connection between access to power and the assertion of manhood as well as the different ways in which caste relations play out did not receive as much attention as one would have liked.
Moreover, a contemporary rendition should have attempted to accommodate more contemporary perspectives on the Indian freedom struggle and the idea of revolution in this context. As it stood, however, these difficulties did not make “Thukra’s Dream” a failure. On the contrary, considering that a young group has attempted a political play of this sort, the production certainly highlighted the potential for great drama that exists here.
RAKESH MEHAR
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
