NSD Theatre Utsav 2008

Yesterday we saw a wonderful play directed by I.G. Mini.

NSD is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and it has been a bonanza week for theater lovers in Delhi. Since kids are not permitted inside, we had been waiting for weekends and for help from baby-sitting friends to be able to be able to catch at least a few of the performances.

On Saturday we discovered to our dismay that most of the plays had already been sold out, except for few in regional languages. One of them was a Malayalam play directed by I.G. Mini titled, “Life, Festival and Death”. A play based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “The Trail Of Your Blood In Snow”, about a stormy mallu love affair that blew over in Paris. An affair scrutinized to death by the TV news-journalists, gossip mongers and movie directors.

The venue was “Bahumukh” which is perhaps one of the most intimate theater spaces within the NSD campus. Intimate because the hall is small (~60-seater) and the audience sits on floor-level seating at the periphery, within touching distance of the performers.

When we entered the darkened hall, the stage had been marked into three sections. On the right side, a temple soothsayer (a Theyyam artist) sat with his assistants in an area lit by oil-lamps; the center was occupied by a rowdy, garrulous bunch of card players and on the left, a simple bamboo frame had been raised to represent space of two lovers.

The narrative moved with the spotlights – starting with the card players and their irreverent banter, and as the focus shifted to the lovers and the soothsayers, the rowdies transformed themselves – in the same hall, with their backs to the audience – first into purveyors of the New Media – over-enthusiastic TV reporters in formal suits, shooting of their mouths off and then turning up at a wedding function dressed in spotless mundu-shirts. The soothsayers groups would magically transform themselves into a parody of a TV-request-show in which the hosts dressed in loud clothes spoke in anglicized Malayalam accents, flirting absurdly with an unseen audience.

The acting and set-coordination was brilliant. Only the ending was rather too open-ended – the ‘movie crew’ introduced themselves, sought some talk-show type feedback from the audience and then disappeared into a door marked “Bar is closed” for a wild dance party.

The audience waited for while, and shuffled out when there was no sign of the actors returning. We too left left wondering if the memorable performance could had a less enigmatic ending.

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Production: Host-O-Theatre, Nayyattukunnummal, Mm Paramba PO, Calicut, Kerala
Cast: Rajan, Balan, Pushpa, Haridasan, Hareesh, Lalu, Hareendranath, Prabhat, Kabani, Mini
Scenography: NG Roshan
Direction: IG Mini
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