The Balcony, presented by the Remembrance Theatre Group from Kerala, showed how people act out their most bizarre sexual and religious fantasies. Director Sasidharan Naduvil tells Utpal K Banerjee that the production’s major point was its ample setting
The Balcony (le Balcon) was penned by the celebrated French dramatist Jean Genet in three versions — in 1956, 1958 and 1962. Set in an unnamed city that is experiencing a revolutionary uprising in the streets, most of the action takes place in an up-market brothel that functions as a microcosm of the regime of the establishment under threat outside. Critics felt that, with The Balcony and The Blacks (1959), Genet re-invented modern theatre. The play was described as the re-birth of the spirit of the classical Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes, while — despite its entirely different world-view — it was deemed to constitute the first great Brechtian play in French literature.
The Balcony has the play’s action taking place in a palatial brothel in which its ‘Madame’, Irma, casts, directs, and co-ordinates performances in a house of several mirrors and theatres. Genet uses this setting to explore roles of power in society. In the first few scenes, patrons don various costumes: of a bishop who forgives the penitent; of a judge who punishes a thief; and of a general who rides his puppet-horse. Meanwhile, a revolution is progressing outside in the city and the occupants of the whore-house anxiously await the restoration of order. Chantal, one of the prostitutes, has quit the brothel to become the embodiment of the spirit of the revolution. At the end, the chief justice, the Bishop, the general, et al. are all declared as killed in the uprising. Using the costumes and props in Irma’s ‘house of illusions’ (the traditional French name for a brothel), the patrons’ roles are realised when they pose in public as the figures of authority: in a counter-revolutionary effort to restore order and the status quo.
The Balcony, presented recently by the Remembrance Theatre Group from Kerala, showed faithfully clients act out their most bizarre sexual and religious fantasies while, outside, revolutionaries were overthrowing the government. Eventually, the illusionists — namely, the customers of Madame’s balcony — led by Irma as the substitute queen, were conscripted to envision their roles in what masqueraded as real life. The play thus became a political satire, within a fantasy, in which all values were overturned. In their new guises the brothel-clients realised that they belonged to their fantasies, and not vice versa. In other words, their world — in Genet’s distorting mirror — was itself a giant bordello!
As directed by Sasidharan Naduvil, the production’s major point was its ample setting: in keeping with Genet’s original insistence that the brothel on stage should not be of “petty dimensions”, but something on the scale of a cathedral; and certainly not a puny chamber-version of Paris’s shady quarters. Indeed, the performance used three mirrored chambers as well as dupleix-level dramatic action: with perfect communication among the multiple strata. Within that elaborate space, the dramatis personnae played out their roles with bravado and extravaganza: in make-belief attires.
Excerpts from interaction with the director:
How did you hit upon the idea of staging The BalconyIJ
25 years ago, I got an opportunity to direct the play Death Watch by Genet. I went through Genet’s other famous/notorious plays: The Maids, Our lady of the Flower, The Blacks and The Balcony. The last play talked about lust and power, revealing dark faces of life and criticised all disguises of society. It fascinated me.
How much have you followed the original scriptIJ
Entirely. It’s such a stage-success abroad that it was bound to make its points in India, too. In fact, the play seems to be relevant in the modern era of institutionalisation: where the government, the authorities, the religious gurus, the revolutionaries and the common man are all in fake costumes!
What’s the driving point of your playIJ
To me, the play’s a mirror against dishonesty, show-off and grand-stand posturing. It could be used as a strong medium for unveiling state terrorism, sham revolutionaries and corrupt judiciary in the present contaminated world.