The Wild, directed by Thom Pasculli from the US, staged at NSD, was a well orchestrated protest against society’s degeneration, writes Utpal K Banerjee
Dionysus (or Bacchas) was the God of the grape-harvest, wine-making, ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in Greek mythology. Alcohol — especially wine — played an important role in Greek culture with Dionysus being an important reason for this life style: worshipped as early as 1500-1100 BC. The earliest cult-images of Dionysus showed a mature male: bearded and robed. later images described him as womanly or “man-womanish”. His procession was usually made up of wild female followers and bearded satyrs.
TheWild, recently presented by Walkabout Theatre Company from Chicago, USA, was an elaborate launching of the celebration of Dionysus: in his man-woman avatar. Directed by Thom Pasculli, the performance began with a mysterious gathering of masked creatures inhabiting the darkened corners of the theatre-space. After an off-key welcome of their god, the creatures disappeared and people emerged in song-and-dance: to enact a powerfully-physical interpretation of Bacchas.
As the first enactment concluded, the arena transformed into a tropical terrace, and the people seemed to become the aristocratic class of an esoteric land. A new, sophisticated kind of violence was revealed, when the glamorous constructs of the upper class began to crack open and crumble. An exploration of cruelty, misuse of civilisation, worship and boundaries took place: tearing things apart and attempting to put it back together again,
The whole play appeared to be a well-orchestrated act of protest against the society’s degeneration into debauchery — using the metaphor of Dionysus cult — beginning from his orgiastic celebrations up to the present-day, barely-concealed, “civilised” practice of tearing down individuals and institutions from their pedestals: in social and political media.
Excerpts from interaction with the director:
Your drama seems to be physical theatre par excellence…
Absolutely right. I ask my actors in the beginning, what do they do best, and what they don’t. Some sing, some dance, some are good at sports, some play instruments and so on. Then, I tell them what I want them to do. Thereafter, we combine their skills and acts as proposed by me, and the theatre builds up…
But, your dramatis personnae appear to belong to different worlds…
Indeed, there are two different plays written by the same playwright, who did not intend to put them together. It was I who inter-faced them: to examine what happens to people when institutions crumble and deities fail to show up.
You’ve demarcated separate zones of acting by whistle-sounds, which is very similar to the whistled marking of ‘Happenings’ as dance-events by the choreographer Merce Cunningham…
I was not aware of Cunningham’s methodology but, indeed, our approach seems to be the same.
How have you used choreography in own productionIJ
I engaged a choreographer to choreograph the whole production. He earlier belonged to our group. But none of my group-members are practitioners of dancing.
How important has been improvisation to youIJ
Improvisation has been our hall-mark during rehearsals, But once it is crystallised, there is little scope of improvisation on stage.
Finally, how much is your play Wild relevant todayIJ
As an American artist, the wilderness has been ever present for me: both in the call of my home’s wooded mountains and in the disorienting tangle of America’s consumer culture. I have always understood the wilderness to be at all times an indoor and outdoor struggle and, in the last ten years, I’ve been most interested in how we confront that wilderness not only as an individual but as a group. Wild is a reflection of my concern.