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We are a political theatre group, nothing is beyond politics.

At home on the stage: Probir Guha.

No hollow claim, this. The end of the 50-minute play ‘Tritiya Juddha’ (Third War) only confirms it.

If one were to ask Probir Guha how he shapes his plays and what drives his troupe to present it in a format that steps beyond the stage, he replies: “Theatre is a journey, it is storytelling. It is a real secular space that cannot lie. It is truth from your perspective.”

When he uses the word ‘journey’ so often in his conversation, one asks him to take us through the journey of two decades.

Idealism, hope, and disillusionment associated with the youth of the Sixties and Seventies were integral to Probir’s early life. Drawn to Marxism and then to Naxalism, he drifted; rudderless he returned home.

It was this lapsing into nothingness that set him on the route to create theatre, which, over the years became “alternative, living and political.”

Early learning in theatre was from jatra and later as a student of Jerry Grotowski’s ‘poor theatre,’ the early exposure to which he received at a workshop in Khardah. Guha relies on traditional tools, because they are time-tested, but “I do not rely on any one. Each member of the troupe has travelled across India and Asia to learn from traditional practices.”

Then could one call his style a mélange of various theatre practices? The learning experience is eclectic but it provides the raw material for constant ‘reconditioning’ with practice. Chhau, Thang tha, Kalaripayattu, Kabuki, Bharatnatyam and many more forms have been assimilated by his team and what emerges is aesthetically rich and thought provoking.

The maverick director emphasises: “We are a political theatre group, nothing is beyond politics. And, in the theatre of protest we are with the ‘have nots.’ But for that “mere sloganeering will not help, it has to be artistic.”

‘Tritiya Juddha,’ staged in the capital city as part of the National Theatre Festival, has verse that belong to no language but is ‘mere gibberish’. Thus he provesthat a play does not need dialogue to communicate.

“I exercise caution in my use of words because word carries power and each word creates a response in our bodies,” he explains.

Replying to a question on how he has managed to inspire a band of young men and women in this materialistic age Probir Guha says: “When they come they are free to interact, question, and learn. Some do leave but the ones that stay on help take ALT forward. We are like an extended family. We all know to starve and survive on a frugal meal. Each one of us knows poverty, so coping with lean periods is no problem at all.”

Theatre too is getting into the commercial formulaic structure where plays are written with a cast in mind. But in his theatre ‘issues are the heroes,’ so acting here means giving importance to every one who contributes to communicate the cause or issue.

Located at Madhyamgram, 20 km from Kolkatta, Probir Guha with his ALT firmly work in the belief “theatre has to be intimate. It may not bring a revolution by itself, but it certainly is a rehearsal for revolution.”

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