How would you prefer to have a range of dramatic rhythms conveying the dialogues in a theatre?
“Drama is not only about dialogue with words. Our traditional form of stage shows had striking conversation brought through with gestures, movements and music,” says actor, director, choreographer, writer and composer Veenapani Chawla (of Adishakthi theatre, Puducherry) who is showcasing her English production ‘Ganapati’ this evening (Oct 29, 7.30 p.m.) at the Ranga Shankara theatre fest. Ms. Chawla’s expertise lies in her handling Lord Ganapati’s storyline through imagery with movements and expression while spectacular rhythmic textures and sounds will all along convey the contemplations.
“I was inspired by Koodiyattam presented by the couple Usha Nangiar and Hariharan where the real text of the play is brought through by percussion. We have lost this age-old sense of communication, so I wanted to explore and create a drama through this medium. I found that it was indeed a fascinating journey on stage,” says Ms. Chawla.
Saxophone, Koodiyattam-percussion drum, Chenda, Pakhavaj and Dimphani will “narrate thoughts through melodic rhythm” in patterns evolved specially by Ms. Chawla to connote the story. “The 75-minute play will have only 10 minutes of textual dialogues. The rest of the converse is with the cadence and modulation of the thumps by the five artistes on stage,” she says.
While Hariharan was associated with teaching Koodiyattam drum-music for the theatrical production, Ms. Chawla’s interpretation of the elephant God’s mythological birth cycle has incidents of historical significance and contemporary perspectives. It starts with the artisans creating the friendly God’s idols, and the incidents are taken from the Vedic cycle (Marthand) and the Puranic (Ganapati).
“It’s a production where the audiences have to concentrate and work a little harder to engage themselves with the theme,” says Ms. Chawla. “It’s a whole lot of captivating fun, evolved through 18 months of practical experiments on stage,” she says.
