Focus on social issues
DIWAN SINGH BAJELI
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Parnab Mukherjee's "Have You Been To The Last Metro" highlights the people's struggle in the North-east.
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It is getting dark. A select gathering of spectators is asked to sit in an open space that is dimly lit with some candles on a stand. The performance begins with no props and no conventional script.
The performers talk directly, passionately, indignantly and loudly about issues that blatantly violate human rights, robbing people of their dignity. The venue is Gandhi Smriti, Tees January Marg, New Delhi.
This is the theatre of Parnab Mukherjee, an expert of alternative theatre propounded by Badal Sircar and a pioneer of what is known as campus theatre. A media analyst by profession, Parnab is exploring the creation of a unique theatre idiom by using spaces to raise a voice of protest against human rights violation. The production is conceived in the course of a workshop conducted by him with the students of Department of Social Work, University of Delhi. Compared with Parnab's earlier production, "Silence! The court (is) in Session" with the Law Students Association of India, the present venture, which took place this past week, appears to be a modest one.
Unmasking Bush
Titled "Have You Been To The Last Metro", the performance text includes elements from Arundhati Roy's play "Animal Farm 11" that unmasks George Bush in his own words.
Defining his kind of democracy, Bush declares boastfully, "Pakistan's a democracy because General Musharaff has my vote. So do the bigots in Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. Palestine is not a democracy because they voted for people I do not like. But India's my favourite democracy."
In a vainglorious tone, he says that America is trying hard to increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons, apart from amassing wealth by plundering other countries. The inherent idea of the piece is that Bush, who swears day in and day out by democracy, has no qualms in trampling on the basic rights of the people of other countries.
In tune with the concept of alternative theatre, the production switches to another idea without exploring America's role in the era of globalisation and the threat it poses to nationalism.
Now we hear the poetic lines from Navakanta Barua translated into English from the original in Assamese to highlight the optimistic vision of the poet.
However, the most vehement comment comes from the references to people's struggle in North East against special powers given to the armed forces in the name of combating terrorism. There are references to violence being perpetrated by terrorists who think they have a right to kill. The innocent people are sandwiched between two kinds of violence - the violence of terrorists and the violence of the State. The production pays special tribute to Sharmila, who has been on fast for the last six years against military repression in the name of fight against terrorism in Manipur, highlighting the indefatigable human spirit to fight against injustice.
The spoken word
The main expressive means remains the spoken word which is accompanied by compositions formed by performers with emphasis on group improvisations.
In the opening sequence a solo dancer accompanies the verbal narration. Parnab's theatre does not believe in entertainment but he intends to produce a theatre of ideas, albeit a range of topical burning issues, a theatre of protest that awakens us to the need to fight for social justice and a theatre that claims to run counter to the proscenium .
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