In translation natakaveedu means home of drama. Until it was built, last year, and came to house Lokadharmi, the theatre group had no permanent address. Founded by Chandradasan in 1991, an initial group of 25 — faculty, actors, students and staff — rented out spaces to rehearse and stage plays. They shifted base often carting along props and costumes that they had collected over their productions. Despite their peripatetic existence they grew to produce and stage impressive plays —‘Karnabharam’ (1992), ‘Poranadi’ (1995), ‘Medea’ (1999), Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ (Chattankattu) 1994, ‘Macbeth’ ( 2007), ‘Lanka Lakshmi’ (2012), ‘Kalinatakam’ (2016) and their latest production ‘Shakuntalam’—to name a few, but it was nevertheless an unsettled life. “To stage a play is expensive. We had no place to rehearse or even to stock routine drama equipment. It was not good going at all,” says Chandradasan who, following his passion, finally sold his house in the city to buy land and build the current space.
Hemmed between placid backwaters and rustic homes, in Nayarambalam, ‘Natakaveedu’ is the culmination of decades of yearning for stability. It is an emotion. Walking through its long open corridors with rooms for trainees and guests, make up rooms, green rooms, central hall and office spaces, Chandradasan talks about the property, his voice expressing poignantly an intense sense of fulfilment of a long-standing wish, hence every brick that has gone into building the structure is heavy with a sense of triumph over unending challenges. Being a veteran actor he expresses the cut and thrust of his travails effectively.
Eco-friendly structure
“The business of doing theatre is not financially viable. It is just out of the craziness of some people that this thing goes on ,” he says
In its architecture Natakaveedu carries forward the Laurie Baker story. Built by Baker’s protégé Padmakumar, it uses materials that don’t hurt the earth. Its reused doors and windows allow a criss cross of breeze and sunshine in good measure. The cross ventilation is akin to the cross cultural exchange that goes on in the environs within. A group of actors from Argentina was here recently, actors from across the world and country come since its opening and indulge in their practice.
As it stands now it is in its first phase. It has a temporary stage with provisions for lights and sound. In its openness it can seat a large audience. But the need for a “proper theatre” is again a desire that haunts Chandradasan. “It is to come up in the next phase,” he says, along with a cafeteria and more storage space.
Tranquil environs
The planned theatre will come up in the vacant part of the 26 cents of land on which stands Natakaveedu. It will be interconnected to the first floor to allow easy passage for actors from the dressing rooms.
“It will not be a proscenium theatre. Actors can quickly move around with change of costumes and such,”says Chandradasan adding that Friends of Lokadharmi (FOCL) help in collecting funds to keep the theatre group going.
At high noon or in the evening hour Natakaveedu is calm and quiet, except for the hubble-bubble of an acting workshop in progress. There is of course the twitter of birds in plenty and the slow village life that moves around it.
If there is one deeply felt sensibility here it is of peace. It is the same feeling that has come over Chandradasan, who toiled hard to build a permanent space for his outfit. He now plans to give wings to all his dreams. “There is no uncertainty now. There is a sense of comfort. In this quiet calm place one can focus. I have plans to restart children’s theatre and revive the old dance drama Chavitunatakam,” he says like an actor who has waged a battle and won.
