Theatre in India has undergone strategic changes but when it comes to original English drama, the scenario remains almost the same and there is not much appreciable growth in it. Ila Sankrityayan speaks to the playwrights about innovative ideas in the same and its popularity as compared to Hindi theatre
Theatre is the most powerful form of art that acts like the mirror of socio, political and cultural scenario of the society. In India, theatre has been presented in various styles ranging from mythology, fables to folk tales. As it is meant to cater the masses, theater has been presented in various languages — regional, Hindi and English. Hindi and regional plays have always remained popular, simply because of being easily understandable by the audience. But if we talk of English theatre in India it dates back to 18th century and began with a purpose of entertaining the British rulers in the country. And with English being the language of elites and educated class, the theatre also remained confined to a limited number of people. The scenario changed in the 80s and early 90s when some original English script started coming up and became popular among people. Though most of them were either comedies or dealing with lighter subjects leaving apart few based on serious issues.
Thus in general Indian theatre always suffered with the scarcity of original English content. Today except a few like Mahesh Dattani and Manjula Padmanabhan or Neel Chaudhuri, artistic director of The Tadpole Repertory, Mumbai, very few directors are coming up with original ideas. Most of them are staging plays based on stories of western writers like Shakespeare or Charles Dickens et al. “Be it any form of art, the main perspective is its ability to reach the audience. And the main hurdle which playwrights in English encounter is that of language. For most of people if the subject is Indian then the dialogues in English do not sound convincing to them. In 2010 we did a play called Tale of the Taj in the capital, with the original script in English. But most people complained that it would be more appealing if we would have seen it in Urdu or Hindi. Despite of this, we come across some good plays once in a while like in 2015 Niti Phool’s The Undoing got a good response. So we do have a modest number of remarkable English content but as compared to Hindi it is very less, almost negligible,” said M Sayeed Alam, director of Pierrot’s Troupe.
Agreed director Rakesh Palisetty and added, “English theatre even today is not as popular as Hindi plays in the country owing to the language barrier. But in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore it is gaining popularity. There are many production houses that perform in English. For example the Akshara Theatre in Delhi or The Hive, Mumbai have made theatre more accessible for actors and directors alike to experiment with. An original play takes a lot of effort and talent to showcase, especially in cities where the arts are striving on very little support be it in Hindi or English. And hence it is always good to have more affordable theatre spaces, so directors can put up what they want to without getting encumbered by the thought of making money. Also the audiences are evolving. They are starting to appreciate original works, but it is still not very popular. But directors turn to scripts that are there and then adapting them to their tastes.”
He goes on, “Some directors do write their own scripts but it does take a lot of time and effort. Sometimes it takes a year to write a script and not much monetary gain at the end of the process. And well Bollywood and the popular culture prevalent in the country are dumbing down audiences. Now all they want is a quick laugh and entertainment and that is what directors are giving them. I believe the younger directors are getting bold and experimental and are coming up with original material. And slowly, hopefully, more original material will be put up in the country, be it Hindi or English.”
According to director Shomik Ray, who is coming up with a Victorian era drawing room plays used to be performed earlier in the drawing rooms of the houses to entertain guests. He is planning to do it in a small area in front of 15-20 people. “It will be based on two or three short stories of Anton Chekhov,” he revealed. Thus the new age directors are focusing more on adaptations rather than original stories as it is difficult to comprehend. Ray emphasised, “Even if scripts are coming they are either rom-coms or meant for commercial purposes. But very rare serious work is happening.”
Not much change is found in the perspective of playwright and director Sohaila Kapur, “I perfectly agree that not much original English theatre being staged due to language barrier. As English still is the language of urban middle class living in metropolitans. But what about other states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh; here masses enjoy Hindi theater mainly. They can relate with it and forms an affinity being mother tongue. So what will motivate script writers to pen down original thoughts in English.”
Khilona group’s founder director VK shared further, “Original English theatre is mainly happening in Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai. But there also most of them are doing adaptations except few groups like Yatri in Mumbai. They are either interested in Hindi or regional languages when it comes to framing original ideas. And few of the groups who have started doing English plays in the capital are mainly doing it for monetary gains.”
However Chandigarh based Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry feels that the problem of original concepts is not only in English but Hindi as well, though the concern is more for the former. “There are good English content that we can come across. For example Rajat Kapoor is really doing a great job. And as far originality is concerned even in Hindi we can see lot of adaptations.”
On the other hand director Rama Pandey said, “Only 35 per cent original English contents being produced in the country.”
Mahesh Dattani feels that originality is not the problem with writers but with directors. “Writers have original ideas but directors are reluctant to take them. They want to rely on classics and tested materials. So it’s not the paucity of content that matters but rather the area of concern is directors’ perspective towards novel ideas,” he said.