25 years of philosophy“Theatre of Relevance”- (1992 -2017)
-
Manjul Bhardwaj
(Initiator & practitioner of the philosophy “Theatre of Relevance)
90s is a decade of watershed
transformation for the nation, the world as well as for entire humanity.
Humanity, riding on the wheels of “industrial revolution”, nurtured a dream of
breaking the shambles of feudalism.But, by the dawn of 90s, the fortress of
communism collapsed and the “industrial revolution” instead of being the
messiah of liberation for the masses turned out to be a dangerous, extremely
exploitative, and inhumane enterprise of capitalism which not only strengthened
the feudalistic mentality but by providing technological support to the
scientific inventions turned the whole world into an exploited “village”through
globalisation. In these trying times, India was not unaffected by the global
processes.
Unipolar global events started
ruining India's productive capabilities. Under the capitalist conspiracy, 66
thousand mill workers who were demanding their rights were laid off their jobs
and the mills were locked down and the conspiracy of transforming Mumbai into
Singapore and Shanghai was implemented which is still evident in the form of
big ‘malls’ and ‘towers’ which were brought about on the site of mills .
At the time of such acute and
humanitarian crisis the people needed a platform which could give them an
opportunity of expression. This among them, could take own their views to the
masses! It led to the beginning of an artistic contemplation and the
commencement of a new artistic tenet. This artistic principle exposed the
exploitative and subjugatory “art for art sake” aesthetic illusion conspiracy of
capitalism and made new artistic elements available to the world:
The principles of Theatre of
Relevance:
1.
A Theatre that
commits its creative excellence to make the world more “Better & Humane”.
2.
That is relevant to
the context of the society and owes its social responsibility, not to Art just
for the Art sake.
3.
Which caters to
human needs and provide itself as a platform for expression.
4.
Which explores
itself as a medium of change/development.
5.
That comes out from
the ' limits of entertainment ' to a way of living.
'Theatre of Relevance” philosophy was
initiated on August 12, 1992 and the challenge of implementation came to the
fore. Capitalism has its own scheme of desecration. It covertly expands through
religion, ignorance, nationalism, and orthodox traditions. The most pious
principle of Indian constitution and the fundamental idea behind India’s
existence, “secularism” was openly challenged and a frenzied mob of religious
fundamentalists razed Babri Masjid (mosque) and the country, Mumbai was
scorched in the fire of communal riots.
In such a tense atmosphere, the
committed artists of ‘Theatre of Relevance’, risked their lives and performed
the play ‘Door se kisi ne awaazdi’, in every nook and corner of Mumbai. I
still remember that day when I gave my artists a white kurta and told them, “This is our shroud”! But, all the artists
filled the hatred of riots and the wounds with their art, love, and human warmth.
Every such artist who has fulfilled their artistic obligation breaths in my heart!
Though it was a small victory over the long struggle with exploitation, violence,
and religious fundamentalism, it not only gave a sense of confidence to us and
to our artistic principle but also gave the ‘Theatre of Relevance’ philosophy a
mass acceptance.
Capitalism changes colour like a
chameleon and the exploitative elements of any system are its carrier and
friends. In the Indian context, it is present in the form of a middle class
equipped with racism, patriarchal society, orthodoxy, and religious
fundamentalism. ‘Theatre of Relevance’ faced these challenges categorically.
For instance, it fought a prolonged battle for child rights which continues to
this day. ‘Theatre of Relevance’ is a laboratory for “a Theatre can bring constructive
change”. You can touch, feel & measure those changes. "Mera Bachpan”
play was enacted in more than 12000 variants and it transformed the lives of
more than 50000 child labourers who are getting educated in schools today. Some
of them are attending colleges today and some are professional theatre artists.
"Theatre of Relevance" by
connecting life to drama has awakened theatrical consciousness and has
connected it to ‘masses’. It has trained the participants in its theatrical
workshops about stage, relation between drama and life, theatrical writing,
acting, directing, reviews, behind the scenes, stagecraft, costume and other
such aspects and turned the artistic capabilities from being a divine gift to a
scientific viewpoint. Over a period of 25 years more than 16 thousand theatre
artists have participated in more than 1000 workshops. Capitalist artist never owe
their artistic social responsibility and therefore are stranded in the quagmire
of “art for art’s sake” and are subsequently subsumed in the grinder of
sensualist art. "Theatre of Relevance" has broken the colonial and
capitalist thinking of “art for art’s sake” with its substance and its
meaningful experiments. It has ‘planted’ and expressed thousands of ‘theatrical
concepts’.It has staged 28 plays more than 16,000 times.
It has challenged the authority of
patriarchy through its more than half a dozen plays, “Dwand”, a play based on
domestic violence; ‘Main Aurat Hoon’ play reverberated the voice of ‘half the population’
searching for its existence; and “ Laadli”
made ‘gender selection’ an issue of national discussion.
In fact, ‘Theatre of Relevance’
gradually transformed the colonial understanding deep-rooted in Indian psyche. According
to ‘Theatre of the Relevance’, theatre is an experience. It could be and is
created and re-created any time anywhere. In theatre, time and space are made
alive with human experiences. Therefore, time and space are fundamental aspects
in theatre. Theatre is an experience. In pure form it is that process which
occurs in human’s humanitarian form & shape. This experience is unique, new
in every person, every situation. It is not exactly 100 percent same, it keeps
on varying. In this 'time' (duration) and Space (situational factors) are the dimensions
and varying agents. In this agent is psyche (psychological). Therefore, theatre
is not a stagnant art.
To perform theatre there is no
requirement of great colonial resources or auditoriumsin the garb of professionalism.
The basic requirement is that of a performer and a spectator and this is our
fundamental and elemental need. According to ‘Theatre of Relevance’ artistic
principle, a theatrical performance is audience and writer centric instead of
being director and actor centric. This is because audience is the biggest and
the strongest theatre artist. It made the issues and the concerns of the ‘audience’
its mission.
Globalization has destroyed the
biological and geographical diversity of the world and it continues to do so. Its
face is squid. Against this obscenity, "Theatre of Relevance" made
its global roar by performing the play"B-7" on invitation from Kinder Kulture Karawane in Germany in the year 2000. Against the privatization of humanity and natural
resources performed the play, “Drop by drop: water” in Europe in the year
2013. This play criticises the privatisation of water not only in India but in
any part of the world. Water is “our natural and birth right”. A governance
system blinded by privatization has to understand that a government which could
not make drinking water available to its citizens should stop chanting the
hollow phrases of rites, culture, and development.
Right-wing political parties use
various emotional issues such as public faith, religion, nationality, culture,
values, and cultural heritage for pure political motives and they have hatched
a successful conspiracy of misleading the youth, have tarnished the hearts of
the youth. By igniting their feelings these parties have mocked the intellectual
capacity of logical reasoning and thinking of the youth.They have poisoned the
hearts of the youth against the sacred principles of Indian constitution and it
is evident in a recent debate against “reservation” which was conceived as a
principle to inculcate social justice and equity in Indian disparities. The
general category youth who consider “reservation” a hurdle in their progress
are not ready to rise above the coincidence of birth and think that in a
country like India where the fate of the children is decided through the coincidence
of birth, reservation is a fair constitutional provision.
In these challenging times, “Theatre
of Relevance” is ensuring direct participation of youth in theatre. We
celebrate the impact of theatre on society. But, still audiences direct
involvement in theatre is negligible. Being viewers, we are deeply affected by
the staging or presentation of drama. But,a direct participation in drama (theatre)
transforms our personality, thoughts and values.
That is why theatre is ever changing.
Connects with “self, with others, with everyone that is, in spite of being
personal, it is collective”.Being personal in spite of being extremely
collective and universal inspite of being collective is the unique aspect of
theatre. Personal experience takes the shape of collective and universality and
again becomes personal. And this process is an amazing process which changes
ethics, thoughts, attitudes, value psychology and create newness, new ideas,
expressions, thoughts, values, the process of personifying the subtlest and
again becoming subtle. It is an artistic science of construction through
destruction and destruction through construction.
‘Theatre of Relevance’breaks concepts,
stereotypes, inferior glands, inertia, and human complexes. ‘It creates
transparency’. At the emotional level it breaks all barriers and become one
expression. This expression generates new vision (inner vision) by inspiring
thoughts to rethink.
To ensure that human remains humans
performed the play "Garbh". This play gives a vivid description of
the struggle of mankind and humanity; It is concerned with the challenges of
leading a humanitarian life. It poses a question on human psychology and that
invisible cocoon which is being woven around each and every one of us by nationalism,
racism, religion, and caste system.
Religion, Art, and literature were
the cultural traditions for mutual dialogue, get together, and connectivity of
humans but, after the second world war the capitalist and imperialist countries
considered ‘trade’ to be the primary source of contact with the world and established
it through WTO whose ultimategoal is ‘profit’.At the root of this perception,
human, humanity, or culture is not primary rather profit is primary which has
turned human into an entity of sale and purchase. Being governed by the
principle of ‘might is right’, this new economic policy is based on bidding,
market, consumption, and profit. Due to this system our farmers are forced to
commit suicide today. Performed the play on the destruction of farm produce, “Kisano
ka sangharsh”.
To liberate artists from the economic
mechanism which makes them puppets, performed the play “AnhadNaad- Unheard
sounds of Universe”. Drama is an artistic contemplation which is a process of
understanding and examining art, the artistic needs of artists and fundamental
artistic processes. Since art is not a commodity and artist is not a merchantand
artist is not a balancesheet of profit and loss that is why this drama by
liberating art and artist from commodity and commodification, inspires and
ensures a better world through their positive, creative, and artistic energies.This
globalisation which robs away humanity from humans and resources from the
nature breeds inequality and injustice.Its progress is based on the destruction
of air, water, forests, and humanity due to which the fever of earth is rising.
In such a scenario where the voice of
democracy, ‘media’, is also earning profit, sitting in the lap of capitalists, ‘Theatre
of relevance’-artistic principle not only accepts the national challenges but
also set the national agenda.
Power is always afraid of artists be
it the power of a dictator or of a democratic system. Power can face swords,
canons or atom bomb but cannot face artists, composers, playwrights, painter or
a personality filled with creative skills because an artist is basically
rebellious, revolutionary and most importantly their art has immense effect on
the masses.
"Theatre of Relevance" by
connecting life with drama has led to the emergence of artistic consciousness and
has connected it to the masses. The presentations of “Theatre of Relevance” are
not limited to any particular iconic auditorium or are not dependent on theses
auditoriums, neither are being funded by any government, non- government,
domestic or foreign institution. Its real 'wealth' is its cause and the real
resource, the ‘audience’ on the basis of which, against all odds, it is
committed to create a better, beautiful, and humanitarian world by becoming the
voice of humanity through its substance and positive experiments. By awakening
cultural consciousness, it is committed to Cultural Revolution!
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment