Middle-class escapism
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Rasaranjani stages metaphysical play `Asamarthuni Jeeva Yatra'.
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NOTED THEATRE group Rasaranjani recently dramatised Tripuraneni Gopichand's famous novel `Asamarthuni Jeeva Yatra'. The play was produced by Vamsee Niranjan Kala Kendram, which was invited by Rasaranjanito put up a show at Thyagaraya Gana Sabha auditorium last week. The subject reflects the middle-class mentality and escapism of Sitarama Rao, a householder who lives in fool's paradise and cannot face reality squarely.
Writer-director and actor B. P. Prasada Rao, who portrayed the role, ably condensed the novel and reshaped it into the drama, without disturbing the import of the story. He retained the dialogues from the novel, especially for the character of Sitarama Rao. Rao's character reflects the general behaviour of a middle-class man, who cannot face reality but thinks high. His wife Indira, well-essayed by Vijayarani, stands by her husband in pleasure and pain representing a traditional housewife in a middle-class family. The drama opens as a dream scene in which Sitarama Rao prays to Lord Siva and his consort Parvati (Vajpai and Prameela Rani)to provide succour to his family.
In parallel, the condition of his family is depicted in another section of the stage. To provide a contrast between myth and reality, two rooms with a partition were set up. The setting, however, was a bit cramped with Thyagaraya Ganasabha's stage being too small to accommodate such a play. There is also no provision for lighting effects.
Once the condition of the family is outlined, the drama gets down to present the psychological aspects of the character of Sitarama Rao. His father-in-law (Padmanabham), a senior in his office (CVS Sastry), a peon (Ramaswamy) and his daughter (Kalyani) played out the other important roles that helped project the Sitarama Rao's personality. In the end, his character comes across as one that reduced his family into poverty, even melting away ancestral property.
His `Antaratma' does the job of soul searching, with Babji coming on stage as Sitrama's spirit. During the course of the play, he proves a poor son, a poor husband, a poor father and even a poor human. Vexed with his indifference, his `soul' deserts him, which is his swan song.
It was a difficult production, for the reason that each character had to contribute to the main role's psychological complexity.
Playing the roles of all the members of the family needed excellent coordination among all the performers. Prasada Rao, in the pivotal role of Sitarama Rao, stood out with his best histrionic output. As a director, he could extract good performances from his team of thespians.
G.S.
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