In a small sleepy town of Raigarh, in Chhattisgarh – which comes alive during daytime to jostling crowds and dusty streets and winds up early, tucking away from the biting cold – a group of theatre activists have been at work to bring the best of the arts to the milieu. IPTA Raigarh, with its band of committed volunteers, is all geared up to stage its annual National Theatre Festival,
well into its 22nd year of presentation. Each year, they select one stalwart from the world of theatre to be conferred with an award in the memory of late Sharadchandra Vairagkar. This year the honour went to noted theatre actor-director Raghubir Yadav.
Having heard of the activities of IPTA, Raigarh, I was quite tempted to visit their work, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an invite, for this festival. Without second thoughts I packed my bags to the first flight to Raipur and then a tiresome road journey to Raigarh, through dusty roads and intimidating jungle terrains.
The festival was staged at the auditorium of the Polytechnic College, after travelling through different location in the past years. Inspite of the apprehension of the organisers about audience response, most of the shows went to a packed auditorium.
The festival kick-started with the play, ‘Nugara Ka Tamasa’, staged by artistes of the Kala Mandali, Delhi. Delving on folk stories to the accompaniment of an ensemble of musicians, this solo narrative was handled by Suman Kumar. Deftly weaving from one folklore to the other, he created a chain that kept the audience glued to the story. However a discordant note between the musicians and the narrator and the preachy metaphors summarising each story was forbidding and pushy. With such a sound content, the form and presentation needed to evolve and interact with the audience, which did not happen, leaving much to be desired.
‘Kasaibada’ written by Shivmurty, was performed by theatre group ‘Sutradhar’ from Azamgarh. Directed by Abhishek Pandit, it has a simple plot of exploitation of simpleton village folk at the hands of greedy and ambitious local politicians and aspiring leaders. The straightforward narrative of the tragedy in the life of Shanichari, as she is tempted to undertake a fast unto death, to force the authorities to bring back her daughter, forced into prostitution after a tricked marriage, underlines the ills which besiege our society. The highly symbolic sets and interesting compositions of human formations, anchored the viewer to the stage. Apart from that there wasn’t much to hold onto, leaving the production with many loopholes, urgently requiring to be plugged.
‘B-3’ a racy performance by the host IPTA, Raigarh, written by Shahid Anwar and directed by Ajay Athaley, truly set the mood of the festival. A professor of history, in order to take students to the grandeur and richness of understanding history, decides to regiment them to get a feel of what Hitler did with the German mindset, prompting the genocide. However it goes out of control when the professor realises his folly, but by then it is too late. It is a satirical piece which punches in the face of democracy and the rise of intolerant fascism. Well presented by the group, it needed more work on diction and understanding of the characters.
Raghubir Yadav, the cynosure of all eyes at this festival, along with his wife and son, presented ‘Piano’, an adaptation of a play ‘Steinway Grand’ by French playwright, Ference Carienthi, written in the 70s. Set against the plot of two lonely souls, one wanting to sell her vintage piano to make ends meet and the other – to kill time – harasses her while impersonating different customers, the telephonic conversation, takes you into a tragic-comic journey. A deep underlying philosophic thread runs across the play, highlighting the uselessness and emptiness that globalisation and the materialist world has created, strangulating basic emotional connects. A powerful presentation by Rahubir Yadav, completely overshadows the linear and often ‘lifeless’ act of the wife Roshini, creating an imbalance which ‘rocks the ship’. Their son Abir Yadav, as the violin playing ‘Sutradhar’, is one actor to watch out for.
The five day theatre festival concluded with ‘Muawzey’, written by Bhishma Sahni and presented by Agraj Natya Dal, Bilaspur. Directed by Sunil Chipde, this play throws light on corruption as it takes different shades and exploits the common man, even if it is times of pain and brutalisation, as during the riots. A serious topic, though written a couple of decades ago, still vibrates as a contemporary issue, making a point that nothing has changed. But a linear and flat presentation left it more deadbeat, demanding a better handling of such a delicate matter.
What caught my attention was the audience turnout for the days. Though Raghubir Yadav did attract the milieu for his star status, the other plays were also watched by a packed auditorium. In a time when theatre is genuinely struggling to sustain the audience and devising newer ways to pull them away from television and cinema, this was a refreshing scene. This also reflects on the investment that IPTA, Raigarh and its dedicated team have made, in building human connect through its varied yearlong activities. Not compromising on quality for favour, it has stuck to its core values and at the same time being open to change. Also a structured decentralisation of ‘power’ and ‘decision making’, had made it all inclusive, creating a lucrative and creatively exciting platform for ‘Generation Next’, to work on. This Pattern is extremely important especially in today’s world, where otherwise one sees many theatre groups go defunct for reasons primarily of a lack of ‘visionary leadership’ or ‘authoritarian straightjacketness’. In the initial vigour a group sticks together, but once the driving force and anchors move on to ‘greener pastures’ and with a paucity of second line of workers, the carefully built ‘house’ crumbles.
I am sure everything is not smooth sailing and there are many grey areas to be patched. Innovative ideas to showcase this festival better at all fronts, from the performative to the audience and management, to raise it higher on the mantle of a creative experience, should always be a primary endeavour. For now the team seems well knit with a fantastic and dedicated younger generation in tow, for which I wish it the very best.
Dr Ajay Joshi
