Exploring little known stories of the past is Darwesh that achieves it through walks in spaces abuzz with history. There are numerous outfits that conduct walks, but how Darwesh does it differently is by incorporating an element of theatre into it. A Sufi Walk in Mehrauli neighbourhood is concluded with a brief act on Bahadur Shah Zafar; or a trail at Tughlakabad — as the group plans — will end up with a performance about Muhammad bin Tughlak. Not many organisations into the business are known to use the ingredient of theatre to pep up their serving, but then for Darwesh it fits into their scheme of things well.
On Dussehra, when Darwesh wanted to tell stories of the Ramayan, specially from the point of view of Ravan, the group took the project to Delhi-6 where it was spread over a few old havelis. Called “Dushamukha in Delhi 6”, the performative walk had a dialogue between Sita and Ravan staged inside a haveli. “There was a sutradhar and a behroopiya artiste too, because we also wanted to highlight the fading tradition of behroopiya. After a brief appearance in the act, the artiste freely interacted with the audience telling them about the tradition. In another haveli took place a musical act,” says Yuveka Singh, who co-founded Darwesh with Meghali Roy in 2013..
But Yuveka is wary of calling it pure theatre, even though everything that goes into a professional production — trained actors, proper costumes and narrative — is at work here too. Yuveka would describe Darwesh as a contributor in the field of culture, digging out lesser known stories from history and sharing them and promoting them. In the process they seek to activate spaces that are related to these narratives. So when they staged “Shah Jahan’s Daughters: A compelling story from Mughal History”, they put up the piece at Baradari or the tomb at Roshanara Bagh where Shah Jahan’s younger daughter lies buried.
“We couldn’t have done a walk there because it’s not a huge space. The walk would have finished in eight minutes. We used different areas of that space to stage five scenes. The idea is to familiarise people with these places and what they stand for. Not many people know why Roshanara Bagh is known as Roshanara Bagh,” explains Yuveka. “But these theatre walks are high on cost. The normal Sufi walk would cost Rs.850 whereas with the piece it would be Rs.1000. For the first time, we charged Rs.1450 per person for ‘Dushamukha’ but for the approaching one we have reduced it to Rs.1250.”
“Shah Jahan’s Daughters: A compelling story from Mughal History” when taken out of the context of a walk and staged as it recently was at the National Museum as part of the just started ‘performance series’, it worked as a theatre piece. Madhavi Menon and Nitika Arora are two professional actors who have worked consistently with the group, not just as actors but also on scripts.
