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On stage Sanjay Kumar: ‘What one doesn’t want to talk about in society can be expressed through theatre’

Founder of activist and feminist theatre group Pandies’ Theatre, Sanjay says, “Most of the plays that are performed in colleges need revamping.”

Sanjay Kumar and his troupe, which comprised writer Anuradha Marwah and college students, brought two self-scripted plays “Danger Zones”, which dealt with child rights in the light of the recent Nithari case, and lesbianism in Delhi’s slums, to the city last month.

“Most plays revolve around competitions and the final goal of the prize money, which is usually Rs. 10,000. I found that money was just thrown and there was no scope given to avant-garde plays or plays that can be adapted.”

Sanjay felt the need to step out and established Pandies’ theatre in 1987, which was registered later in 1993.

Pandies’ explored a plethora of issues using the world of theatre. From rape, prostitution and HIV, the Mental Health Act and its relations to women, institutions of love and marriage, Pandies’ has also adapted Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” from a Third World perspective, Doris Lessing’s fiction, Bertolt Brecht’s farce on the rise of Hitler, Mirabai’s story, Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” to Simone de Beauvoir’s “Les Belles Images”.

Sanjay realised a great deal of theatre from the Third World, including Pablo Neruda and Vincent Le Ntro, was not given enough space and decided to do so through Pandies. Sanjay experienced difficulties when they tried to find space to practise and rehearse.

“When it comes to activist theatre, we realised that we were negotiating power while hiring rooms. There was a constant barrage.” Pandies Theatre then had to make do with flats, before being given space in colleges and schools.

But the director is optimistic. He feels that there is a space for activist theatre and that it stems from generating one’s own audience and results over time.

Like when Mohini Giri of the National Commission for Women gave them the go ahead to make a play about HIV and rape. Sanjay states that theatre as a means of communication and trauma therapy goes a long way. “What one doesn’t want or can’t talk about in society or to a psychiatrist, can be expressed through theatre.”

Pandies has been involved with platform schools, juvenile homes and jails, and has also travelled, conducting workshops in Kashmir, Gujarat and Punjab, talking about anti-communalism, farmers’ suicides, and most recently, the horrific Nithari crimes.

“When one starts talking about these issues using theatre, it becomes a cathartic exercise that deals with trauma.”

Sanjay notes that “acting” is merely not delivering pre-rehearsed lines on stage. “The word ‘act’ stems right from when you discuss, write the script and then perform it.”

So, how does theatre become therapeutic? “As soon as you relive the traumatic experience or a child enacts a desired scenario of a home with a family, then it immediately deals with the pain and lessens it, as you immediately are thinking and solving.”

In a string of three connected words, Sanjay Kumar makes a lot of sense – actor-act-activism.

He can be contacted on sanjay.pandies@gmail.com or +919811147241.

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