A poetry performance, It's raining cats, dogs and elephants, at Akshara Theatre will bring on stage some of the sparkling wit of well-known poets. Jalabala Vaidya talks to Ila Sankrityayan about the concept behind the reading and relevance
Carl Sandburg very aptly remarked, “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” And these lines seem to be turning into reality in It’s raining cats, dogs and elephants, a poetry performance of some of the world’s best-loved poetry featuring the wild animals, forests, storms and seas.
The programme will present the poetry of Kalidasa, William Blake, TS Eliot, Pablo Neruda, AA Milne, Rudyard Kipling, DH lawrence, lewis Carroll and Gopal Sharman.
“Raining cats and dogs is a well known English saying for a heavy downpour, adding the word elephant makes it both funny and also Indian,” said Jalabala Vaidya, director of the show. Helping her on stage will be Gopal Sharman, Sunit Tandon, Nisa Shetty Rakesh Palisetty and Dhruv Shetty.
According to Vaidya, material, cultural and theoretical developments have led to drastic change in the socio-economic life and affected the ways of looking at the reality. As literary writings in one or other way act like mirrors of whatever happens around us, they are a barometer of change and turmoil.
“While poetry recitations and readings have been going on in the city for quite some time now, people are not familiar with performance poetry yet. It will be basically a poetry reading, though a piece here and there may be sung. And few of the pieces will be enacted like excerpts from Ritusamhara by Kalidasa, The Secret in the Elephant’s Heart by Gopal Sharman, Growltiger’s last Stand by TS Eliot and The Trial of the Horse by Rabindranath Tagore,” shared Vaidya.
For Jalabala these poems span more than thousand years and connect with the people through beautiful words and in-depth emotions. “We are trying to promote and rejuvenate poetry and connect with people through this medium. It is the language most suitable for our mixed audience and poetry seems to be making a comeback in this internet age,” she added.
The director mentioned that it is their attempt is enlighten and enchant poetry lovers by putting together a platform that provides stimulating, thought-provoking and entertaining interactions for all ages and walks of life.
“And this will be done through excellent reading so that each poem can be clearly understood. We have a variety of readers so that different voices are heard, both male and female,” ellucidated Vaidya.
It will be interesting to see some of the out of the box works focussing on issues like environment, tigers, planting trees and so on.
“These poets, like William Blake’s Tyger Tyger or Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas bring these concerns powerfully, beautifully and often humorously to mind,” added the director.
Some of the highlights that will grab attention are several amusing poems about cats like The Rum Tum Tugger by TS Eliot from his collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Don Maquis wrote a funny and famous poem called Archy and Mehitabal (about a cockroach and his friend, a cat).
“Archy could not press the shift key so his poems are all in lower case. This influenced poets like EE Cummings, who also wrote an animal poem. Robert Burns, the Scottish poet wrote a famous poem To a Mouse — ‘Wee, sleakit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie’ and The Zebras by Roy Campbell,” concluded Vaidya.
To be held at Akshara Theatre on June 18