In addition to its lavish proscenium productions showcased with the now customary fanfare, this year, the Aditya Birla Group’s theatre initiative Aadyam will cut its teeth at a smaller, more intimate, ‘black box’ venue — Mahalaxmi’s G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture. This is an attempt at “design and conceptual innovation combining space with theatrical technique”. The very first outing under this scheme is The Hoshruba Repertory’s production of Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj, directed by the prolific Danish Husain. It opens this weekend for a solid run of ten shows over eight days flagging off the 2017 Aadyam season in the process.
Fresh spaces
Since its opening in November 2015, G5A has slowly but surely ensconced itself in the city’s nebulous cultural scene, with specially curated programmes that reflect both a discerning sensibility and an open-mindedness to embrace Mumbai’s true diversity. Its modern fittings and decor belies its location in an old mill area of former notoriety. The performing area itself has been adapted to different theatrical presentations with a degree of flexibility. Aadyam’s second venture here, Mohit Takalkar’s Gajab Kahani, based on José Saramago’s The Elephant’s Journey , will likely reorient the space in a manner markedly different from Hussain’s outing.
It is interesting that Guards at the Taj arrives at Indian shores less than two years after its off-Broadway debut at a refurbished church venue in Manhattan. Indian theatre-makers do usually consider an extended run in the West as adding sufficiently to a piece’s ‘tried and tested’ cred, but have traditionally selected material that have displayed a shelf-life of decades, or the kind of enduring approbation that lends allure to any adaptation. In a shrinking world order, where word of mouth praise (or criticism) travels as fast as the click of a mouse, this is fast changing.
Breaking new ground
The works of playwrights Nassim Soleimanpour ( White Rabbit, Red Rabbit and Blank ) and Mike Bartlett ( Cock and Bull ), or D C Jackson ( My Romantic History) have been picked up fairly quickly by Indian producers, almost at the heels of their international runs. Not just sought-after scripts, even obscure texts are now finding audiences in India.
Joseph is an American playwright of no mean pedigree, and a Pulitizer Prize finalist in 2010 for his play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a meditation on the absurdities of war. The opening performance was top-lined by the late Robin Williams in the title role. Born of a French-German mother and an Indian father, Joseph has never downplayed his mixed-race credentials, and has often drawn from sub-continental themes. The toppling of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto informed The Leopard and the Fox , and his first play, Huck & Holden , was based on the experiences of his father as a recent immigrant to the States. Other plays have prominent Indian-American characters. Before this Aadyam presentation, his play, Animals Out of Paper , a production that features more than 75 pieces of origami, had a 2014 run at Bengaluru’s Jagriti Theatre in a version directed by Jimmy Xavier.
Metaphor for change
Guards at the Taj is set in 17th century India, and much of the action takes place at the doorway of the newly completed Taj Mahal, where two imperial guards keep somnolent watch. Although the marble mausoleum is still very much a source of national swagger in a culture where the idea of an incredible India has to constantly be sold, its blood-stained history, apocryphal or otherwise, has slowly percolated out into the public consciousness. From the macabre fate ascribed to its architects or craftsmen, to the detrimental environmental effects of the reckless Taj Corridor project, to its appropriation as a Hindu edifice by fringe elements, it is no more possible to look at the Taj Mahal through the faint gauze of misty-eyed romanticism.
It is a structure that lends itself spectacularly to satire, and Joseph’s script brings these tensions to the surface, by foregrounding a bloodied myth that can still stand in as a metaphor for a kind of ruthless oppression that persists to this day. As Hussain says, “It [represents] a very contemporary India. It’s about friendship, hierarchy, freedom and censorship. The satire isn’t offensive or preachy [and] the Taj becomes a metaphor of monumental change.”
Hussain can be regarded as one of Indian theatre’s resident raconteurs. For years he has been one of the flag-bearers of the ages-old form of Urdu storytelling, or dastangoi, that is now an entrenched feature of the Indian arts scene, especially in Delhi. Since shifting base to Mumbai, Hussain has been one of the city’s busiest actors, cropping up in projects as disparate as Sunil Shanbag’s Loretta or Imraan Rasheed’s Phir Se Shaadi!?, often revitalising jaded ventures with his articulateness and disarming comic timing. His theatre outfit, The Hoshruba Repertory, has performed works like Qissebaazi and Poetrification in fringe venues. Another long-running production has been Ira Lewis’ Chinese Coffee , a two-hander featuring Vrajesh Hirjee and Hussain himself. For this latest directorial outing, he is reunited with Hirjee who, alongside Joy Fernandes, will attempt to deliver the play’s deceptively comic tenor with both gusto and gravitas.
The Guards at the Taj will stage at G5A, Mahalaxmi on April 30 and May 3-7. For timings and other details see bookmyshow.com
