Going beyond words
BHAWANI CHEERATH
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`Padhom,' an adaptation of Ionesco's `The Lesson' was staged by Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
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Photo: S. Gopakumar
GIVING A LESSON: A scene from `Padhom.'
That plays are dialogue-oriented is not a new finding, but this rang loud and clear for viewers of `Padhom,' the Malayalam version of Eugene Ionesco's `The Lesson.' The play was staged by Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre at Gorky Bhavan this Saturday under the auspices of Alliance Francaise, Trivandrum.
There is the contradiction of the erudite professor who knows everything but is confusing (or confused?), caught as he is between the word and its meaning with several words signifying the same thing and the same word connoting several things. There is also the student whose brilliance proves to be but superficial, as she fails to comprehend the details and intricacies the professor attempts to explain.
There is also the Maid who knows how it is all going to end, as she has been a near-mute witness to several such episodes and warns the professor in vain against another venture. The play opens with the student knocking at the door of the professor who is waiting in anticipation. Its culmination is in the murder of the student by the professor which one could interpret as a sexual assault on her. The wheel comes full circle when the play ends with the professor waiting for his next victim.
Allegorical tale
Beyond all that, it is an allegorical tale of the rigidities that knowledge imposes. A strong point that comes through the length of the hour-long play is that power and knowledge are in the heads of the elite and it becomes a tool not to teach or liberate but to oppress and derive pleasure in its various forms.
Ionesco, one among the foremost of the playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd, has said that his works represent "a mood and not an ideology, an impulse and not a programme" and it is this mood that comes through in `The Lesson' too. The grotesque and the bizarre combine to create a disturbing representation by the eccentric professor whose dialogues make us laugh while his actions make us tense. The constant pull between the tone of the dialogue and the overpowering of the pupil provides the energy for the play while it also highlights the mechanisation of language itself.
According to the director of the play, Jyothish M.G., he has tried to visualise this in the context of the current trends in a globalised world.
Need for identity
According to Jyothish, the fear of being subsumed is countered by this need for preserving a cultural identity and language becomes the prime tool in this exercise. "The Maid represents a different social strata but her dialogues are incisive, and reflect a deep understanding of the reality," says the director.
The viewer is put on the alert with one-liners like, "You've learnt a lot from your lesson" or "You are satisfied with your student' or better still," "All things have to finally end at the same point" by the Maid who has watched each lesson culminate in tragedy .
The tautness and directness of the play, which has retained at its core the inadequacy of language as a tool as implied in plays of this genre, made it a rewarding experience. The three actors Srinivas, Sandhya and Vishnupriya essayed their roles with ιlan and the compactness in the total presentation was evident from the word go. A touch of the professional was evident in the set design, executed by Sabu Lal B.K.
Abhinaya, which has a presence in the theatre circuit for over a decade, has been consistent in its effort to create a new theatre sensibility. Such efforts bode well for those seeking an expression beyond the electronic medium.
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