At a time when some highbrow stage directors are engaged in negating the role of a playwright by creating their own script in the course of theatre workshops, his belief in the primacy of the play in a production will lift the spirits of playwrights who feel insecure faced by the new trends in theatrical practice. In support of his viewpoint, he quotes Jaishankar Prasad who said that theatre should adapt itself to the requirement of the play.
To elaborate his point, he cites Bernard Shaw, “It is the drama that makes the theatre and not the theatre the drama ... the whole difficulty has arisen through the drama of the day being written for the theatre instead of from its own inner necessity.”
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Trained in London Academy of Music and Drama, author of 20 plays and a committed stage director, Virendra Narayan's views on drama as the soul of theatre and the basis of mise-en-scene, are encased in the recently published book entitled “Virendra Narayan Granthawali 2, Natya Vimarsh” (Anamika Publishers).
Narayan's forte was light and sound style of presentation and as the director of Song and Drama Division of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, he got the opportunity to write and stage plays and also write on the various aspects of theatrical art — all these and much more form the part of his collected works which have been edited by Mangalmurti.
The book is divided into five parts. The first part includes all his original plays, the second part brings out his critical studies of theatre and drama, his four original novels form the third part, in the fourth, his diary , reminiscences and letters are incorporated and also his well-known book “Hindi Drama and Stage” whereas his writings in English are published in the fifth. These volumes project the life and creative world of this multi-faceted artiste.
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Valuable insight
The second part of the collected works of Narayan includes a detailed evaluation of Jaishankar Prasad and his reflections on the classical Sanskrit theatre and problems of Hindi theatre.
As a longstanding practitioner of theatre coupled with his training at London Academy, he is able to give technical details about the device of handling light, sets and costumes to produce a play in a professional manner. The studies on the theatrical art and the presentational techniques would give valuable help to theatre practitioners.
However, the author treats the element of music, which is a powerful expressive means in drama, casually. He writes, “If needed the help of a musician could be sought”. In fact, for a modern production it is not the musician but a theatre music director is required to produce emotional impact. Similarly, no guidelines are given for the director on how to interpret a classic and also on the relationship of the director with the playwright.
The book captures in detail the dramas of Jaishankar Prasad and his development as a great Hindi dramatist with insight. Though much has been written about Prasad but Virendra is the first director who has discussed his plays from the viewpoint of a stage director and he is candid enough to say that what he had written may not appeal to other directors because every director has his or her own individual vision.
He describes Prasad as the product of the Chhayavadi school of Hindi poetry which pervades all his writings. His works display a deep attachment to the past, an attempt to evaluate the present in the light of the past and the desire to look at the present and future through the veil of the past. The author describes all his plays as non- realistic except Dhruwaswamini.
B.V. Karanth, the doyen of Indian theatre, staged “Skanda Gupta” at Varanasi in 1972 repudiating the myth created by scholars that Prasad's plays are not stage worthy and these have only literary value. In fact, it was Karanth who was the first director to bring out the dramatic grandeur out of Prasad's plays hitherto neglected by theatre people.
Virendra writes, “There is life in the plays by Prasad. However their success on the stage depends on the calibre of the director”.