Both 12 Angry Jurors and The God of Carnage are Aadyam initiatives, and both plays were chosen by them and offered to me to direct. And because both were directed a year apart, there wasn’t really a clash of any sort. I’ve always believed, and I’ve said it before, that The God of Carnage (by QTP, to be staged in Chennai) isn’t a comedy but rather a story about human nature at its very basest, but with comic undertones. The situation lends itself to humour very well, but what I got out of the script was a sort of dark, bleak text that shocks the audience into laughter. 12 Angry Jurors (by Rage Productions, to be staged in Hyderabad) explores themes of justice, social inequality, prejudice and social responsibility.
Static sets
One big similarity between both the plays is that they are both set in one static location throughout. In both The God of Carnage as well as 12 Angry Jurors , the actors are in a one-room set, and ostensibly, both texts are just people sitting around and talking to each other. So it’s up to the director, in both cases, to make it dynamic. What’s great for me though, is that both plays are extremely well-devised as a text. For example, it may look like people are just sitting around and chatting, but if one actor has a line on page 10, and another line on page 35, that have a connection, then I need to make sure the audience catches on to that.
What’s in a name?
In both plays, we aren’t allowed to adapt, and The God of Carnage is decidedly set in the West. The good thing was that it was just like watching a Hollywood movie, where temporary suspension of disbelief is a given – because as soon as you give a character a name, it comes with its own implications. Like with ‘Alan’ and ‘Veronica’ in The God of Carnage , the audience will hear these names and assume they are foreigners, ‘not us’, and a sort of wall comes up between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
With 12 Angry Jurors , the good thing was that there isn’t a single name given to the characters, so that’s half the battle won right there. Instead of enforcing details of where the play is set, the actors were allowed to come up with little inflections of their own, like “ arre bhai ” or “ yaar ”, “come on”. A good actor can take this and make it his own entirely.
Four vs. twelve
While one play has four main characters, the other has 12, and in both cases, they are all on stage the entire time. One wasn’t harder to direct than the other, but the focus is wider when there are 12 people onstage. When there are just four characters, we had to be much more specific about what each one was doing — since the level of distraction is down by eight! That was why the attention to detail was much higher in The God of Carnage .
In 12 Angry Jurors , when there are 12 actors on stage, and only two are talking in, say, stage right, there are still people on stage left who needed to look like they were listening. Because the audience could be following any of the 12 people on stage, even the ones who have no lines at any given moment – they all need to be watchable. Personally, when I am watching a play as the audience, I find that watching an actor listen on the left, not actively doing anything, is as engaging as two people going at it on the right! Unlike films, we don’t have the luxury of a close-up, so the audience has no option but to look at everything.
Human nature
What both plays have in common is that they deal with human nature and the basic conditioning that society puts us through. But while 12 Angry Jurors sees how that conditioning affects a situation or a decision, The God of Carnage is just a window into the viciousness and savagery that exists in everyone behind the veneer that society enforces. 12 Angry Jurors is an intellectual take on how personal prejudice can affect the life of others, while The God of Carnage shows us how given the right provocation, we can unleash our inner Neanderthals.
Basically, both plays are about the masks we wear everyday, and while the masks don’t come off in 12 Angry Jurors , we see how all hell breaks loose when the masks do come off in The God of Carnage .
(As told to ELIZABETH MATHEW)
( TheGod of Carnage will be staged on August 21 at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Chennai, at 7 p.m. Tickets are priced at Rs. 600, Rs. 400 and Rs. 250.)
The Hindu Theatre Fest 2016
The Title Sponsor of the event is YES BANK. The Associate Sponsors are Kauvery Hospital, Hindustan International School and Telangana Tourism. The Hospitality Partner is Taj Coromandel. The Mall Partner is Phoenix Market City (Chennai). The Mobility Partner is Ola. The gift partner is Terra Earthfood. The Radio Partner is Chennai Live 104.8. The Merchandise Partner is Focus Art Gallery and the Event Manager is evam.
