T HIS WILL ONLY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES – A new play by the theatre collective HANCHU-YUEI (Japan) and the Tadpole Repertory (Delhi), presented by The Japan Foundation, New Delhi, opened in Rangashankara recently. The performance was structured around vignettes depicting six urban lives – as the brochure said - living in the folds and lapses of our ever growing cities. We witness the absurd realities of urban living through the lives of a man in jail who tries hard to build a relationship with an unknown caller, an art student chasing a legendary salad, a suicidal youngster, a woman who hires an escort to visit a doctor and a man who works for the department of public nuisance (a comment on the state of our public works departments).
The play, written and directed by Suguru Yamamoto and Neel Chaudhuri, is contemporary with innovative use of video projections and lighting. The interplay of two languages – English and Japanese -- along with a smattering of Hindi adds an interesting global dimension to the performance. Loneliness in the chaotic urban life is the theme throughout the play. The relationships or the lack of them is sensitively portrayed in the vignettes. The play also makes an important comment on how technology is a deterrent to relationships in the modern urban lifestyle rather than an aid.
One evident aspect in the performance was the intense collaboration between the artists from two different cultures. While some ideas such as hiring an escort to visit a doctor might seem alien to us Indians, they are close to reality in cities like Tokyo. Neel Chaudhuri, artistic director of Tadpole says the collaboration has helped his team understand and learn new ways of working.
The performances of the actors was tight and the rigour of rehearsals was evident on stage, especially in the physical movement pieces. The design of projections was outstanding. One small hitch was the projection of subtitles as it required the audience to look above their eye line which meant they would miss the action on the stage.
