A rehearsal is in progress at the Black Box Theatre Studio in Adyar. It is quiet, except for the character’s lines being rehearsed and a fan that whirs above.
On the floor is the director, Krishna Kumar of Masquerade, supervising, his eyes glued to the text, occasionally glancing at the actors. He is also giving them lighting cues as the scene requires them to respond to the coming and going of light. It is a meta narrative, a play rehearsal within a play. Kumar’s body language gives away his dedication to any script he deals with and, his philosophy — the text is sacred.
“The writer is sacred. It is a thin line — to balance an actor’s creativity and at the same time not compromise the integrity of the script. A not-so-savvy actor can sacrifice the quality of the script, which is not necessarily original, like the stuff from classics or contemporary literature. Playwrights get their visibility if we perform these scripts,” he says.
The man and his team at Masquerade have entered their 25th year. The journey has been interesting, he says. He started in the 1980s and that was the time when the only groups performing in Chennai were the stalwarts such as The Madras Players and The Little Theatre. Kumar belonged to a strong literary tradition. He was pursuing his PhD in European Drama at the Madras University. He recalls his penchant for enacting German plays in translation, Greek tragedies and comedies. “I could relate to world literature. I wanted to offer the audience the richness of understanding without minimum clutter. So, our plays were all about minimalist sets. It is predominantly about stage space, the actor and what the director wants to communicate on behalf of the writer.”
To be a good actor, one needs to observe a lot and be sensitised to life itself, says Kumar. He refers to another theatre professional, Chandradasan of Lokadharmi Indian Theatre in Kochi. “His work on stage is mesmerising; it springs from his own life experiences. Language is incidental; it is all about what you bring on stage and what you have gone through in life.”
After touring across the globe, being exposed to world theatre, collaborating with light technicians, and visiting art galleries and children’s theatre troupes in countries like Germany, it was frustrating to return home and work, he recalls. “Here, there’s no depth in people. They have a happy-go-lucky attitude. The problems are first world such as issues with the coffee vending machine in the corporate office or modern day relationships. I’m not saying that these are not problems. But, it stops there. Their concerns do not go beyond that. Where is the question of creating something fascinating?”
However, he also states that the work done during the 1990s and early 2000s in Chennai thespian scene is impressive. And, compared to Mumbai and Delhi, the theatre scene in Chennai is a lot more diverse. “Maybe there are many acting schools in those cities, but the frequency of productions here is higher. We are working with one fifth of financial resources and doing some tremendous work.”
What is missing is perhaps mentorship for younger people. “A lot of youngsters come up asking me to work with them. I try to give what I have. Otherwise, I will be covered in cobwebs and might grow stale.”
