Sisterhood of travelling theatrewallahs

A collaborative project involves two sets of women stage professionals, from the U.K. and India exploring the ideas of sexuality, identity, dreams and homeland says Rinky Kumar

Mirroring reality: The current socio-political situation in the UK and India triggered the idea of Sisters

When object theatre practitioner and puppeteer Choiti Ghosh interviewed her close friend recently as one of the exercises for Sisters (a collaborative project by National Theatre Wales and Mumbai-based Junoon), she learnt new things about her. She realised how her friend takes an incident in her life, spends a lot of time processing it and always looks at things from two different points of views. This prompted Ghosh to do some soul-searching of her own.

Likewise, actor-writer-director Sushama Deshpande learnt new facets about herself when she took a self-portrait with 10 different objects that chronicled her story. The veteran artiste, who has helmed path-breaking productions like Baaya Daar Ughad and Aaydaan , chose the first book of Mahatma Phule that she had read for her Marathi play Whay Mee Savitribai and the mirror that she had been using since her debut performance.

The aim of

Sisters is precisely this — to explore what does it mean to be a woman today and address questions about sexuality, identity, dreams and homeland. Imagined as a brand new, contemporary work created by a group of artists from Wales and India, whose cultural roots and histories are intrinsically linked and connected to the Indian subcontinent, it features five artistes from both the countries who are involved in the research and development phase of the project.

Apart from Ghosh and Deshpande, Sameera Iyengar (co-founder of Junoon), writer-actor Sapan Saran and visual artist Tejashree Ingawale comprise the Indian group. In July this year, Kully Thiarai, Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales and digital artist Shahnaz Gulzar came to India to conduct a workshop with the local artistes.

Thiarai says, “ Sisters is a collaboration between Asian women from the UK and India that aims to explore our identities, especially those of us whose roots are based here but have lived elsewhere. We wanted to look at it by asking ourselves what does it mean to be an Asian woman today in India or the UK.”

Thiarai, who hails from Punjab but has lived in the UK for more than four decades, adds that the current socio-political situation in both the countries triggered the idea of the project. “I have been aware of what’s going on in India (referring to the numerous sexual assault crimes against women). Of late, U.K. has also been going through its own crisis. The Brexit vote has thrown open a lot of issues like who you are, where do you come from, whether you should be a British or not, so for me, it was trying to look beyond your horizon and looking at what brings us together and what separates us,” she says.

Iyengar adds that such a research-based programme is the call of the hour. “When we started Junoon, it felt important to ensure that the arts become an integral part of people’s lives. Also, when you are in a city as big and cosmopolitan like Mumbai, you realise how it is creating division rather than solidarity amongst people,” she says while talking about how the arts can play a crucial role. “When you come together as part of a creative act, you create bonds that are much larger. A collaboration like Sisters seeks solidarity without trying to define differences. We need a different frame of looking at the world today and women can contribute immensely,” she emphasises.

Apart from the self-portrait exercises, all the Indian artistes will interview five women each, draw up a family tree and choose three women who they consider their sisters. The exercises will continue till October following which Iyengar and Saran will sift through all the material and also attend a week-long workshop in Wales. Later, post a production workshop, the project’s future and whether it determines a full-fledged theatre production will be determined.

Working on Sisters has been a life-altering experience for all the artistes and each of them hopes that it will reflect in their work in the near future. Ghosh says, “I found the interviews challenging because I wasn’t sure how the interviewee would react to the questions that dealt with sensitive issues. Also, while working on my productions, I could never do collective research. But this project gave me an opportunity to do so.”

Ingawale, who has already interviewed a chaiwalli in Kolkata, now plans to talk to a woman who works in a red light area and a transgender who runs a haveli in Haryana. Accustomed to letting her work speak for itself, she is now grappling with the idea of expressing herself more vocally and enjoying the process of getting a glimpse into other women’s lives.

For Deshpande, choosing the objects to define herself was a novel experience. “It was an interesting process to decide the objects. For me, it was tougher than interviewing someone.”

Thiarai, on the other hand, feels that this project will help all the artistes to get a better understanding of women. “All of us are complex characters and have a tendency to label ourselves as Asian or Indian women. But we need to understand the complexity of what we are doing. We needn’t shy away from it but harness it by finding people who are different from us and might be able to shed light on who we are and how we see the world,” she concludes.