Silence! - The play is in progress

RK Bidur *

Call it professional theatre or institutional, the Chorus Repertory, from its very inception April, 1976 has been unblemishedly engaging itself in multifarious theatrical activities-staging plays, holding seminars and workshops, organizing theatre festivals, running theatre-training classes, lending out its play house, Shrine to small theatre groups at a very nominal charge for presenting plays, arranging cultural and literary programmes et cetera.

Whenever the Chorus Repertory sends out resounding notes into the ether, there is indubitably a show-big, superb and magnificent. In December last year, it premiered its latest production "Ashibagee Eeshei" a translation play of Henrik Johan Ibsen's (pronounced Henrik Ibsen) "When We Dead Awaken" (1899), last work of 27 (22 staged) in the Delhi-Ibsen Week organised by the Democratic Arts and Design Academy and the Norwegian Embassy before an international audience.

The Repertory had staged the play more than 4 - 5 times for Imphalians at the Shrine. Many interesting write-ups appeared in the local press and subsequent rejoinders too followed. After all critic is part of theatre.

In the rundown, printed in the Brochure, available on payment, director Ratan Thiyam asserts, "Ashibagee Eeshei" is a Manipuri Ibsen for the global audience". His venture is to keep the real spirit of Ibsen intact and also make the play palatable for 'the Manipuri speaking public', Well, no Manipuri director played any of the Ibsen-plays beforehand, the only occasion we'd seen the work of Ibsen in the Manipuri theatre was when years ago Prof GC Tongbra, himself a famous playwright and director did translation of "A Doll's House" into Manipuri, titled "Laidhi Amei Yum". We were enthralled to read Nora, the female protagonist - her strong gesture of womanly defiance and self assertion.

Thiyam is competent and faithful to the Norwegian Ibsen despite the problem inherent in transplanting a play from one culture to another. "Important scenes from the three acts of the original play are picked up and interpolated without altering the story line and disrupting the continuity," says Ratan Thiyam philosophically.

In the Manipuri adaptation all minor characters are skipped and concentration is on only four major characters. Amold Ruben is christened "Shaktam Lakpa", Irene "Shaktam", Maja "Shakhenbee" and Ulfhejm "Lamlanba" to create an aura of Manipuri atmosphere.

In the opening scene Shaktam Lakpa, the passionate artiste jumps and dances to a popular number of immortal singer Ngangbam Nimai played on an old gramophone -

"Jaati koubi shakhenbi
Leiranglaktagee athoibee..."

(O, Enticing Jaati
Queen among the flowers...)
Jaati-amily of Jasmine

It gives a shiver of excitement and the appeal is almost instantaneous - a sensitivity, non-Manipuris will never experience in their lives, I am sure. Characters (Idea?) in the traditional cloth "Leirum Phee" and statues of dancing Gopis from the famous Manipuri Jagoi Raas- all these are not simply dramatic metaphor but also a distinctive feature of Manipuriness.

"Ashibagee Eeshei" is presented in a rather non-narrative style and structure and it also contains too much dialogue and not enough narrative. Shaktam Lakpa has an artistic vision, however it does not materialise, he becomes restless and cannot get himself attuned to normal state of mind. His spouse Shakhenbee worsens the situation for him all the more by often haranguing on the kind of their married life.

Shaktam Lakpa naturally seeks solace in his imagined beloved Shaktam, a mix of fantasy and reality. In the meanwhile Shakhenbi elopes with Lamlanba for she believes, the change will bring her a peaceful and enjoyable life. However after soul purified and conscience awoken, what each of them had been after turns out a false dawn - "they all are just caught in an acute existential crisis".

Ratan Thiyam deals with the fundamentals of human existence and takes the spectators on a voyage deep into human conscience. What the director attempts to do is to create an atmosphere and develop an attitude of mind for contemplation on the nature of the world and human life.

Brilliant symbolic set, stylized acting and movement are all, as though, psychologic sounding board from which is reflected the thinking and feeling of the audience. The naked stage achieves spacelessness when the play is unrolled scene by scene before the bewitched audience.

Director Thiyam, like a film editor, builds up a montage of variety of episodes. The stage becomes a vibrating centre of action where dramatic events occur with speed and tempo. Characters are nothing more than vehicle of ideas, visions and symbols and as such they are of secondary importance.

Yet the histrionic talent of the artistes may not be waved aside as mere performers'. RK Bhogen (Shaktam Lakpa), Shantikumari (Shaktam), Indira (Shakhenbee) and Robindro (Lamlanba) are all excellent artistes and live upto their respective roles.

The fact that spot-lighting is the basis of all good stage lighting is quite obvious in the play. It is the slanting rays of the spot-lights shining full on the face that breathe life into the action. Thus actors are placed where the light falls most brightly on their body and face. The creative lighting consists just as much of the correct use of shadow as of light. In fact shadows give depth, shape and life to the scene.

One could see that without them stage would tend to lose its third dimension from the point of view of the static observers. To create music for such a play could be really a difficult task, it has to be created not only for "mood" or "effect" but more importantly for its being functional to the treatment of the theme. Changes taking place in the Temporal and Spatial dimensions are clearly expressed through the medium of music. That's the essence of "Ashibagee Eeshei".

One may not share Thiyam's contention - "Ibsen's concerns find a resonance in Hinduism" for concepts like Nirvana, Karma, Rebirth etc as explained and expounded in the Buddhism and the Hinduism may not be resonated with resurrection which is purely of the Christian belief and propounded in the New Testament of the Bible.

While an organization is branded "Regional" it might be construed being localized, limited and confined. Regionalism may thus seem opposed to nationalism or generalization (globalization). However from the practical point of view, the two concepts are rather mutually inclusive than exclusive. With this logical mind perhaps San Francisco Chronicle (USA) observed, "Thiyam's direction underlined the tension between the individual and socio-religious order. Thiyam's home audience wouldn't miss the reference to Manipur's own political turbulence."

Coming to a denouement -

"Ashibagee Eeshei" - a Manipuri Ibsen play may remain as a perennial favourite, an aesthetic fashion of its time.

"Ham se puchho ke "Ratan" kya hai
'Ashibagee Eeshei' ka fan kya,
Chand Lafzomein Aag chhupa dijaye!"

(Seek my opinion about "Ratan"
And his play "Ashibagee Eeshei",
Then I shall say -
It's "Fire' within a few word!)

- Jaan Nisar Akhtar may excuse me.

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* RK Bidur contributes to e-pao.net for the first time.
This article was webcasted on March 02, 2009.

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