Absurdist love, Kuka call and puppet plays

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IRISH WRITER Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) has become almost synonymous with his Waiting for Godot, a play in the absurdist tradition which has had a thousand flowerings in almost every Indian language in which theatre plays. Other plays by Beckett like Endgame, Happy Days, and Krapp’s Last Tape have also been staged, however, his fiction has never been considered material fit for theatre, which is what Conor Lovett, the Irish actor, who was in India last week to give an absolutely stupendous Beckett performance, has been exploring.
His solo show of Becket’s 1946 novella First Love, was a brilliant exposition of the writer’s priceless use of words by somebody who knows his author’s talent, can thus deliver with such acuity. Conor’s favourite is Molloy a novel which he says can be performed from any page you open: One sentence by Samuel Beckett is a language event!
Conor has the ability to integrate word with meaning and gesture and to paint images. His conversation with the prostitute, whom he meets on the bench where he sleeps on being expelled from the family home, is a brilliant display of a dialogue within a monologue.
The stance he takes and holds evokes the woman he is describing, the woman with whom he falls in love and discovers she is a prostitute when he goes home with her. The play is directed by Conor’s wife Judy Lovett who has a degree in visual arts and specialised in installation art. This Irish couple has made their home in France just outside Paris and tour with plays by Beckett throughout the world. The company that calls itself Gare St.Lasare Players was spotted in the Edinburgh Arts Festival by the indefatigable theatre person Ravi Dubey, at whose invitation they have performed in Mumbai and Delhi.

The Punjabi Akademi and the Ministry of Culture presented the multimedia sound and light show Kuka Leher Gatha at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds, over three evenings. Written and directed by NSD graduate now a writer in Bollywood, Amrik Gill, the show was a well rehearsed and tightly knit account of the Namdhari Sikh community’s great contribution in the 1857 war of independence. The Namdhari Sikhs are also known as the Kukas because while singing and dancing they go into a trance and dance like the Sufis. And while dancing they make a cooing sound and hence Kukas
The entire Ferozeshah Kotla ground was awash with white pagris, white beards, men and women clad in white clothes holding white beaded “jaap malaas”. 110 of them formed the jathas that traversed the performing area singing songs of revolution and the message of their guru Ram Singh. Ram Singh was said to have had a miraculous birth and at the age of seven was married to Jassa Kaur. As a soldier in Ranjit Singh’s Army he tried to lead the men away from gambling and other vices. Ram Singh was born in Bheni in district Ludhiana where the Bheni Sahib the Kuka headquarter is situated. Besides instilling the love of country in the Kukas, Guru Ram Singh liberated the women and declared them equal to men. They accompanied the men in the battles the Namdhris fought against the British.
Kukas were in the forefront in the fight against the Moguls and Nadir Shah. All this and more is shown in the spectacle that has the voice of Om Puri as the narrator and other well known actors speak the dialogues which are mimed by actors in the performance areas against the Ferozeshah Kotla ruins. It is an entertaining and informative show credit for which goes to Amrik Gill who lived in Bheni Sahib to research the excellent script. The music sung and composed by the Namdhari musician Balwant Singh is superb in keeping with the tradition of the music in Bheni sahib. Started by guru Ram Singh the musical tradition was cherished by his successors Guru Pratap Singh, The current Guru Jagjit Singh is a great singer and the creator of new ragas, new talas and new styles, and is respected and honoured by classical musicians like Ustad Amjad Ali, the Mishra brothers Sajan and Rajan and several others who consider it a privilege to perform at Bheni Sahib.

The Jan Natya Manch (JANAM) best known for its prop street theatre, presented a delicate nuanced play Char Rang on the well equipped proscenium stage at their Muktadhara auditorium off Gol Dak Khana. Sudhanva Deshpande and Brajesh have adapted the play from Rabindranath Tagore’s novella Chaturang which is a tale of an old fashioned family living in times of change and how it affects some members of a family leaving the others untouched. The play takes off from the feminine aspect of the story where weak women suffer under pressure from the patriarchal family, and attempts to the link it to the life of women today.
The action shifts between reality depicted by actors and fiction by beautifully designed rod puppets by animator Shaaz Ahmed manipulated by member of the cast. In the reality sections that occur in the classroom coffee house/canteen and the metro, there is a lady professor (a subdued and efficient portrayal by Jyoti Roy) who is a good teacher and a good daughter until the time she decides to marry a man who belongs to a lower caste.
The other weave of the fabric is the reference to a soothsayer/godman/ operator (a subtle performance by Brajesh) who manages to seduce the minds of some students with tricks they come to rely upon.