Earlier this month, a 21-year-old naked man screamed obscenities at Donald Trump in New York’s Times Square. The young fellow became a fleeting symbol of these disaffected times and expectedly broke the internet. His misadventure lasted a little more than an hour, before police induced him to careen off a ledge on to a massive airbag deployed below, that he proceeded to miss by a whisker. His day certainly wasn’t going too well. Apart from the shenanigans atop the tickets (spelled tkts) booth at Seventh Avenue, and the shifting billboards behind him that alternated posters of West-End musicals like Kinky Boots and An American in Paris , the man has another connection to theatre. And Indian theatre, at that. He was later identified as Krit McClean, an international runway fashion model. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Colombia University, McClean played the lead in theatre personality Mahesh Dattani’s recent production of Chokher Bali , adapted by academic Partha Chatterjee from the Tagore novel.
In March, Dattani had been invited to direct the production for the drama department at the university. “This was the first time an Indian play has been performed as part of the curriculum,” he says. The politics of a 19th-century Bengali period piece was initially difficult to unlock for the multicultural cast at his disposal. Ultimately, what won through was the strong protofeminist leanings so innate to Tagore’s novel, at whose centre is the star-crossed friendship between two women, Ashalata and Binodini. The latter, a widow, seduces Ashalata’s husband, Mahendra (the part played by McClean). Mumbai actor and Columbia alumnus Sharvari Deshpande stepped in to perform the Baul songs that provide the play some narrative thrust. There was some resistance to McClean’s casting, perhaps because of his modelling background. But Dattani felt his retiring sincerity would serve the character of Mahendra well, especially as a foil to the tempestuous and powerful Binodini. It’s also the reason why his recent public meltdown has taken everyone by surprise.
Later this month, Dattani heads to New York again, this time to the township of East Brunswick, where he will direct another play for the locally-based Indian Cultural Society, which will be showcased at a South Asian theatre festival.
The Masrayana by William Kovacsik is a contemporaneous Indian fable, inspired by true events, in which a farmer who has been legally declared ‘dead’ struggles to regain his life and identity. It is a play that Dattani feels carries deep resonances for Indians as well, and he is toying with the idea of mounting a production of it in Mumbai as well, with an Indian cast.
Dattani’s excursions come at a time when it appears to be open season for several Indian theatre-makers to create or participate in work abroad. Deshpande moves on to the much-awaited Broadway production of Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding , where she will be joined by singing star Namit Das. This month, Abhishek Majumdar and his Bengaluru-based Indian Ensemble are in Western Africa’s Burkina Faso. Here, they collaborate with Ouagadougou’s Théâtr'Evasion on a global theatre project that will research perspectives on human trafficking and work exploitation. Simply put: how humans are sold and bought. Back in New York’s Lincoln Centre, Delhi’s Neel Chaudhury is back at the yearly Director’s Lab after a stint last year that tackled challenging new theatre. This time, his travel companion is playwright Swar Thounaojam, whose 2007 play, Turel, will be workshopped at the centre.
And, across the Atlantic, Manish Gandhi is part of the cast of Now We Are Here , an evening of sharing experiences penned by refugees, which will be performed at London’s Young Vic Theatre on July 20. It is directed by the Ian Rickson, for whose Mojo the Play , Gandhi remembers queuing up to watch it two days in a row. So, it is certainly karmic for Gandhi to be essaying the part of Mir, a refugee who has escaped war and now has to deal with an alien culture in Britain.
These are human stories that are not really a part of Trump’s world-view. McClean’s public display may have been a spectacular failure, but more voices will emerge, and perhaps not be so easily quelled.
