Aneesha Madhok's dance-drama will be her ode to the visually-impaired. She tells Iknoor Kaur that she drew influence from Hebrew culture
Aneesha Madhok crossed paths with Aristotle’s Fury of Tragedy, inculcated the foreign theatre theory of Augusto Boal, learnt the nuances of Hebrew culture, mixed all of it and formulated her own style on stage. At 12, she not only conceptualised, but also scripted an entire dance-drama which didn’t follow the conventional rules of theatre. Now, at 17, she is not just a playwright, but an artiste. Directed, written and performed by her, Aliza Free, a dance-drama that creates awareness about the visually-impaired, will be staged on October 23 at Sri Ram Centre. “The story is set in Israel during 1950 and aims at spreading two messages. One is of resilience — an ability to bounce back after circumstances break you. Second is that people should understand and step into the shoes of a visually-impaired person. The motto of the play is ‘an eye to a voice.’ I want people to become more aware,” she shared. “The story revolves around princess Aliza, is the main character of the play. Everything is perfect in her life till she turns blind. It is about how she learns to bounce back and accept reality. I am not showing a clichéd tragedy because in this story it is the lover who hurts the protagonist the most.”
The play is not a remake or an adaptation of any script, said Aneesha. “I have created a new style altogether. This kind of theatre has never been done before. I have been inspired by the Hebrew and eventually ended up learning the language. The script has always been close to my heart and I finally managed to bring it on stage. This unique style I have used is visible in the middle part of the play, when an actor emerges into a musical sequence and exits his character. I have used a mixture of other theatre theories that make it a completely new genre in India,” she added.
Since the performance is heavily influenced by the Hebrew culture, it also has a lot of song and dance associated with it. “Through the play I have tried to express sadness, love and joy. To get it right I went and met the people at the embassy. Then I finally put it all together and choreographed all the Hebrew dances. There are a lot of Hebrew songs as well. I did a lot of research on their culture and also read a lot of the Jewish Bible,” she explained.
Aneesha recently started her theatre production, “El Tamim which means ‘the innocent’ in Hebrew. I gave this name because I am going to be honest here. I feel that innocence is my weakness and I’m going to make it my strength through theatre.”
The young artiste learnt ballet when she was nearing 17.
She said, “I have grown up learning this and always tell people too — it is never too late to learn. People feel that a dance as graceful and skilled as ballet can only be mastered if learnt from an early age, but I learnt ballet when I was 16. My ballet teacher felt that I had a natural ‘Pointe’ in ballet. So, I got pushed to the higher levels of professional dance in hardly any time. So much so, that today I choreographed an entire play.”
Though the story of the play is not directly linked to her life, Aneesha said that it may have drawn inspiration from it.
“It is not directly related to my life but as a playwright I think differently. I have drawn a lot from my experiences. I spent a lot of time with myself while finishing this. However, at the same time I was also spending time with my friends, going to school and enjoying myself. So, I think the way I balanced the two reflects on my script. I think even the times when I got hurt have taught me how to reflect pain,” she elaborated.
At present Aneesha is in grade 12 and will be appearing for her IB board examinations the coming year. She said that once that is done, she will be devoting her entire time to her plays. “It will always be influenced by the Jews though,” she signed off.