Dr Sadananda's Mime Plays
As played on Oct 16, 2008 at New Delhi

Meghachandra Kongbam *

A NEW FLAVOUR IN 11-DAY NATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN Dr. Yumnam Sadananda has today become synonymous with Manipuri mime theatre. His tireless exploration and experimentation on the art of mime theatre -an art of silent gestures, upon the fertile soil of rich Manipuri culture has brought himself to find his niche in the mime world.

Three mime plays "My Obedient Doll", "Mime Stick Dance" and "Naughty Boy" directed by Dr Y. Sadananda of Kanglei Mime Theatre Repertory from Manipur was staged at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi on October 16 in the National School of Drama's 11-day National Theatre Festival for Children 2008 from October 10 to 20 in the national capital.

His 65-minute mime plays had added a new different flavour of the festival which featured 22 plays of several languages- nine in Hindi, three in Assamese, two each in Manipuri and Bengali, one each in English, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi and Marwadi from various regions of the country, including an English play "Choon Hyang: True Love' from Seoul, South Korea.

It could communicate easily to each and every audience mainly children without any barrier of language.

In My Obedient Doll, the doll-maker creates a live doll that can walk, run, shoot, somersault, dance and do acrobatics. Through the different actions performed by the doll, the play spreads the message of unity, integrity, peace and harmony in society. N. Nilkanta Singh who acted as Doll had a fantastic acting with his stiff body movement and freeze facial expression.

In Mime Stick Dance, the lone actor T. Rishikanta Singh performs the rhythmic and skillful handling of a big stick by two small sticks without making it fallen on the ground. The artiste employs combine elements of juggling, mime and traditional martial arts steps to create a unique and fascinating presentation.

Naughty Boy looks at the activities of a naughty boy who is upto all kinds of mischief, from stealing fruits from neighbouring orchards to killing birds with his catapult. Each day he comes up with something to amuse himself at the expense of other people.

Day by day his mischief increases and the people finally teach him a lesson by breaking his catapult. The boy realizes his mistake and expresses "sorry' for his past actions.

S. Jibson Singh as naughty boy had an excellent performance. His reaction gestures on different scenes was quite entertaining. An M.A. in English literature and Ph.D. in Manipuri theatre, Dr. Y. Sadananda, the Director of the Kanglei Mime Theatre Repertory, Imphal said, 'Mime is simply defined as "the use of gestures and facial expression to tell a story or convey feelings, especially in theatre'.

The world mime theatre today employs various effects portraying meaningful and entertaining performances. India too has a rich culture of art its manifestations and our persistent effort is on a fusion of mime with all other indigenous art form of Manipur for a more thriving mime performance of International standard.

He established his repertory in 1987, the only one professional Mime Theatre group in Manipur State. His group made its first appearance in the national mime scene in the year 1989 in the 1st National Mime Festival held at New Delhi.

The Repertory presented the play 'Power's Act', based on a victim woman tortured by the Army. Since then, his group took part in every National Mime Festivals held at different parts in the country. He is a pioneering mime artiste and director in the North East India.

After his ceaseless effort in the development of mime theatre in the country upon the foundation of rich Manipuri culture, Sadananda was able to enter into the international scene. In May 2006, his repertory participated in the Chuncheon International Mime Festival in South Korea representing India and presented the mime play 'Cheitheng (Agony).

The play based on the great epic Ramayana's episode of Shrawankumar, son of blind parents, who was killed by King Dasaratha had a widely acclaimed play in the Festival. Besides Cheitheng, the Repertory staged two other mime plays namely My Obedient Doll and Naughty Boy.

His Repertory had a great exposure in the international scene when the mime play Cheitheng again participated in the 9th International Puppet and Mime Festival of Kilkis 2007 in Greece from September 25 to October 10 which had the participation of many great mime and puppetry personalities from different countries namely India, Greece, Hungary, Canada, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Germany, Spain, Syria and France.

Jogesh Dutta, renowned mime artiste of India and Y. Sadananda were the only personalities representing India in the festival. Cheitheng was staged as many as five times in different locations in the 9th International Puppet and Mime Festival of Kilkis 2007.

Kanglei Mime Theatre Repertory is now a centre for creative mime artistes, art lovers and enthusiasts. It has been organizing mime workshops and implementing mime projects on culture and education.

Ngamkhei(Border) directed by a female director Y. Anuradha of Huyen Lalong Thang-Ta Cultural Organization was other Manipuri play that took part in the National Theatre Festival for Children.

Ghat directed by Pabitra Rabha of Dapon the Mirror, Assam ; Olong Dolong Korise by Gourab Kumar Hazarika of Shilpa Kanon and Seujia Gadi by Simanta Phukan of North East Theatre Academy were the Assamese plays staged in the festival.