A neo transpire Changing language of the contemporary Manipuri theatre

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Heisnam Kanhailal during a rehearsal for the play 'Uchek Langmeidong'

This paper was presented to the Rangalochan Golden Jubilee National Theatre Seminar, Delhi which was organised by Nataranga Pratisham (Archive and Resource Centre for Indian Theatre) on 26th March, 2015. A neo transpire Changing language of the contemporary Manipuri theatre

Theatre never remains quietly watching the ever changing trends and upheavals of the society. These become spontaneously manifested either in a feature or lineament of the theatre. The matter is on the revelation and concealment, phrases and proverbs, directly or meanderingly in its expression. Theatre never cease to live.

The art and culture of Manipur in the North East corner of India is so rich that defining it will always be under provided. In the field of theatre, dance, film and sports there is no one in the world who do not know it. However, the lifestyle or the existence of the people of the region is panicking since the region is set within a highly arm conflict zone. Because of this reason, the theatre critics of this region are not able to express independently and facing certain impediments. Within these sorrowful, chaotic and instable situations the sensitive theatre creators of this region are pursuing for a new language of the theatre and uncompromisingly employing the theatre as a sharp weapon to put up a clear feature of this society on the stage.

Experimentation is now a hallmark of the new Manipuri Drama. Many plays concerning the contemporary issues in a very clear form are being enacted incessantly. Speaking about contemporary theatre, in its writing, the play should be of contemporary style in writing and in its expression and there should be a contemporary challenge in the usage of forms. When defining the term Contemporary Theatre we should recall as Theodore said, "Contemporary theatre refers to the work of those artists who are creating unique forms of theatre to express what it is like to be alive to-day."

During the past decade, we have experienced ample of changes in the Contemporary Manipuri Theatre. If we are to mention especially the important elements of theatre performance, we find many changes in the style of writing, its enactment, designing, the energies in the expression of the actors, technical experimentations, performance spaces and the audience. Firstly, the varied themes of the contemporary Manipuri theatre, which are composed within the framework of post-modern and post structural theory, that appear before the audiences are mentionable. This is still an issue which is debated by the theatre critics in many seminars. It is because of the intrusion of many performances beyond the traditional definition existed in the "theatre" and "performance" of the modern Manipuri theatre. A remarkable transformation in the creation of such plays is the changing course of aesthetic function of the theatre. That means the appearance of a new aesthetics.

The changing theatre language of the contemporary Manipuri theatre wherein we may keep our view at first are the play designs produced during the past ten years by the two internationally recognised theatre groups Corus Repertory Theatre and Kalakshetra Manipur. The first question is why the plays of Corus Repertory Theatre and Director, Ratan Thiyam are so popular and favoured in national and international festivals. The simple answer is, in each of Ratan Thiyam's plays, a new language and a new flavour is available.

The latest theatre language that we can see in Ratan Thiyam's play structure is the super imposition of layers of plots upon another plot, the back and forth movement of dramatic action within the past and the present, in the style of using language, the to and fro flow of archaic language from a low dialect to high poetic form which is a novelty. Thus it is found that, he maintains a rapport with the archaic Manipuri world outlook by using ancient symbols and signs of the Meiteis in the making of his new plays. This amazing groundwork of his, by laying strata of archaic layers, he transforms his theatre to a contemporary theatrical language. In each performances, a distinct metaphor began to dominate. The mingling of archaic and contemporary expression in every performance is distinguished splendour. Thus it is found that in the performances of his plays, the social matters sometimes change its course to philosophical.

If an example is to be cited about Ratan Thiyam's newest play regarding the theatrical language, his play 'Macbeth' is mentionable. In this play, a new text structure, visual design and new language of acting can be seen. This play production, right from the beginning of the play, more importance is given to visual. The director breaks up the play frames to make up different scenes. These scenes are link up one after another as text by forceful expressive visual effects. In the text of this production, certain metaphors are found to have combined together along with the actor's body, energy, and their movements, voice, music and sound within which, the energy of the dialogues delivered by the character with an internal force as the language of the theatre.

This new understanding, as seen in Ratan Thiyam's training of actors, the psychological feature of the role played by the actors and transpire it into a suitable outer form of energy is an experimental aspect of the new concept of theatre. Precisely, the new language of theatre as can be seen recently in Ratan Thiyam's play is the transformation of dramatic text into stage design and visual effect and makeup of the actors into a new mobile energy based body.

Next is the aged director and theorist Heisnam Kanhailal of Kalakshetra Manipur. In different pilgrimage of his theatre he has continued by giving sobriquets like Ritual Theatre, Theatre of Transcendent, Theatre of Transition and Nature lore etc.

Like Ratan Thiyam, Heisnam Kanhailal too has a long journey in the field of theatre. With his new theatrical language, there still is a gap in the communication between the critics and audience when watching an experimental performance of Heisnam Kanhailal. In short, after watching his play, the flummoxed audience would dismiss unable to explain and confused, exclaiming, "The play is enjoyable, but there is something within." So, if one has to witness Kanhailal's experimental performance, care is to be taken to know how his theatre is, from which view and the individual standpoint from which his plays are to be viewed. Because, if the viewer do not access into the work and watch the play with a creative process, the onlooker will not be able to absorb real taste of the experiment.

Subsequently, in the matterof acceptance and rejection of the changing features of Ratan Thiyam and Kanhailal's plays by the audience and the critics, RatanThiyam's plays seem to be more communicative with the audience and the critics.

Another language of the contemporary Manipuri theatre that has clearly been changing during the past 5 to 10 years is the emergence of a new language of the Manipuri theatre in terms of acting expression and form of the play by the reason of its extra ordinary theme. The emanate feature of these play styles is a blend of excessive sentimental, world of an emotional behaviour, style of speaking, acting realism, surrealism and sentimentalism. In this style of expression the unhappiness, anxiety, revengeful and nostalgia are sprouted in a deformed form of excessive expression. At this juncture, an illustration that brings about the "extraordinary theme" is the "Mythical Surrender" of N.T. Theatre.

A brief about this play is, it can happen within any war zone. Before hundreds of years, rape has systematically used as a weapon of war to ravage a system of a society and to mentally supress and discourage the opponent. Thus the theme and premise of the play is born out of the women who are repeatedly raped gave birth to the offspring of the enemy and branded as "little killer" or "Children of misfortune and bad memory." This is the play premise of "Mythical Surrender" in which a mother shot dead her own son, an event impossible to happen in this world that is put up on the stage. Such type of plays are raised on the stage by different Manipuri theatre groups during the past few years. In the new language of this theatre, the height of feeling and emotion shock and hit upon the intellect.

Along with this if we do not discourse the ever-changing language of theatre with an accurate prediction, the insinuation of the futuristic theatre will be impending. It is not that we do not face certain issues with regard to the real changes happening at Manipuri theatre, which is the distinctive combination of the changing view of the world and the social reality of this region. If we are to observe the attitude of minds of the theatre makers of this region relating the peculiarity of this theatre language, someone's overtly political in expression, whimsically expressed and very subjectivein its expression are evident.

These types of expression in the serious drama of this region in the flux of theatre seem to take its impetus during the past ten years. If some of the new tool kits employed by the theatre creators of the new trend is to be quoted, it will become apparent that, a well commentary on the current social and political situation is done by using our existing folk and traditional forms. In this style of theatre making, "Reinterpretation" is an important means. It is from this angle that different theatre creators of this region began to approach in different subject with different style of reinterpretation. The problems that can be discussed within this frame are human problem, new political movement and vision.

For these theatre groups, the most important is the new approach in the text of the drama. What we are to describe as new change is, unlike the traditional way, the transformation of the text to a visual dramaturgy without hindering the inner lying of the text. In this approach of creating plays, it is clearly noticeable that all the structural elements of the text and inner meanings become a perfect production by using the means of visual narration. Thus, many literary texts are transmuted into plays by means of nonverbal devices, like dummy, large doll, mime, dance, stylised acting, character with histrionic personality disorder, exaggerated degree of emotional expression and accessibly sentimentalism behaviour. Thus it is to be said that, the contemporary Manipuri theatre is sweeping by the new language of communication recreated by the hybrid image of such hodgepodges. These changes may be labelled as a collective feature brought about by the changing thematic changes of the playwrights and new changing forms of the directors.

Who will discourse such changes in the contemporary Manipuri theatre? Are our audiences able to communicate with the highly experimental plays? At the end, these questions become very significant. We have many critics, performance expert specialists. They seem to be not able to follow the discussion on the development in the highly experimental works by applying new performance theories and major current theories. The reason is they have to go neck and neck with the ceaseless journey of so called art, aesthetics and creativity that fills the emptiness of life. The saying is; the artistic dream is quite impossible to appreciate without an artistic heart. In brief, it is clear that our critics are not able to walk in the same level with the highly experimental theatre workers of the new theatre. Or it may be discussed if our critics have alienated the new tendency.

Lastly, the subject which is being put up by this topic is, when even the critics of this region have diverse opinions and cannot go along with the experimental performances of the Manipuri theatre, the common audiences will never be able to go along with the contemporary theatre. It would be an impossible task to alter the common men into sophisticated audiences. Thus it becomes very clear that there is a big gap between the critics and the audiences in the contest of the new transpired language of the Manipuri theatre. The contributions of the critics and the performance specialists to the Manipuri theatre which is an avant-garde and forerunner in the national and international scene. The demand of the new language created by the theatre creators of the Manipuri theatre is the need of a closer contact between the critics, audiences and the new works. If it can be proceed like this, a new vigorous feature of Manipuri theatre will be generated.

This paper was presented to the Rangalochan Golden Jubilee National Theatre Seminar, Delhi which was organised by Nataranga Pratisham (Archive and Resource Centre for Indian Theatre) on 26th March, 2015.