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Playing tough
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Naseeruddin Shah on the importance of theatre in making political statements
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After three decades in the performing arts, the glint in Naseeruddin Shah’s eyes has not faded. The first performance of Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Sophocles’ political drama “Antigone” is just over at the Ranga Shanka
ra Theatre Festival 2007, Bangalore. And attired in a loose, buttoned-down off-white kurta, he is in the green room.
Naseeruddin’s theatre group, Motley, was created along with theatre personalities Benjamin Gilani and Tom Alter 30 years ago. “‘Dear Liar’, stories in Hindustani by (Munshi) Premchand, Harishankar Parsai, Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto, Kahlil Gibran’s ‘Prophet’ and now ‘Antigone’ are some of the plays we keep performing.” Benjamin Gilani chips in: “Hasn’t it been 16 years since you and Ratna (Pathak Shah) have been performing ‘Dear Liar’?” Naseeruddin nods.
“Antigone” was written in 1942 by Jean Anouilh “to represent the struggle of the French Resistance Movement against the forces of the Vichy regime during the height of the Nazi occupation”. Naseeruddin comments: “The relevance of the play is obvious – if it isn’t, then we’ve failed to underline its emphasis.”
“We are surrounded by neighbours such as Burma, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and others where totalitarian regimes suppress the voices of individuals.”
“And Gujarat is another extreme case where there was a recent incident of an artist and his works being brutalised.” The character he plays in “Antigone”, directed by virtuoso Satyadev Dubey, is King Creon. “We have to understand that ‘terrorists’ (in this case is the king) are also people with demons who have their sleepless nights for their own reasons.” He continues, “There is humanity in the villain. He has been directed or portrayed with the right degree of cold blood.”
About the number of amateur, slapstick theatre comedies being produced nowadays, he simply says: “To each his own… and as for me, I don’t go anywhere near it.”The versatile artist said the recent plays he enjoyed watching were Vikram Kapadia’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Divya Jagdale’s
“Bansuri”.
AYESHA MATHAN
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Bangalore
Chennai
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Kochi
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Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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