Rabindranath Tagore’s The Post Office , a play written in Bengali in 1912, is among his works that received international acclaim. WB Yeats produced an English version of the play and wrote a preface to it. For its first English performance in 1913 by the Irish Theatre in London, Tagore himself was present. The play had 105 performances in Germany. Juan Ramón Jiménez and André Gide — both recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature — translated the play in Spanish and French, respectively. A Polish version was performed under the supervision of Janusz Korczak (author) in the Warsaw ghetto. In 1965, Zul Vellani brought it to Bollywood as an hour-long feature film.
But it’s not just the prominence of the play that led Arka Mukhopadhyay of Yothirgamaya Natya Kalari to direct a performance based on its protagonist, Amal. Of course, having grown up in Bengal, it wouldn’t have been easy for Arka to escape Tagore’s works even if he’d wanted to (he recalls the play being in his school text). He, hence, even as a schoolboy, knew the story -- of Amal, a child with an incurable disease, confined to his adoptive uncle's home -- but years later, when he, by now a theatre professional, reread it, he was moved by its themes of love, death, zest for life and liberation.
“It’s not just a well-known play; it has universal themes that resonate with a lot of people, across years, across cultures,” says Arka. It definitely struck a chord with the sufferers of holocaust in Europe “When Korczak was asked why he chose this play, he replied, ‘eventually one had to learn to accept serenely the angel of death.’” The Post Office was Korczak’s last play, performed by the children of his orphanage, before they were killed.
But In Search of Amal won’t be a readaptation. Arka adds, “It’s about the exploration of the sentiment and emotion in the search of one’s oneness. Through Amal, we try to talk about childhood without infantilising it.” Amal, who’s terminally ill in Tagore’s story, fantasises of the outside world and its wonders. When he hears of a post office coming up in the neighbourhood, he gets excited about the possibility of him receiving letters from the king or being the royal postman, delivering the ruler’s letters to him.
The one-hour theatre performance, which will be a melange of several art forms — Koodiyattam, mime, Yakshagana among others, was entirely crowd-funded. It will be performed on June 15 at Design Barn and on June 16 at Swastika School of Dance and Music.
(For reservation and other details call 7411633145. Tickets on eventshigh.com )
