Paattabakki at Natakakalam-2009, an Alternate Theatre Festival

[Dr.Mahesh Mangalat]

Paattabakki at Natakakalam-2009, an Alternate Theatre Festival
from http://chandradasan.blogspot.com/

The district library council of Eranakulam is organizing a national
theatre festival, a 21 day production and playwriting workshop and a
week long theatre seminar named as Natakakalam 2009, in memory of the
late playwright- actor -director Bharath PJ Antony.

This festival is intended to showcase the Alternate theatre movement
in the state that reflects the social realities of the current India,
and has a political consciousness. The inaugural play is Inquilabinte
Putran (March 15), written and directed by PM Antony, based on the
life and works of PJ Antony performed by Nataka Arangu Cherppu.. The
other plays are Theerayathra, (directed by Probir Guha in the 21 day
workshop organised by district Library council at Kochi),
Kadathanattamma, (the play that won the state award for the best
professional drama of the year, written by Jayan Thirumana, directed
by Manoj Narayanan, performed by Rangabhasha Kozhikodu) and
Chathacharitham (scripted and directed by AR Ratheesan, performedby
Thekkan Chittoor Kalavedi), on 16th, 17th, 18th respectively.

The concluding play is Pattabakki, the first political play in
Malayalam written by K.Damodaran in 1936, designed and directed by
Chandradasan, produced by Lokadharmi.

Pattabakki (The lease balance)
As early as in 1936 when the political arena in Kerala was becoming
more and more tense with the peasant landlord antagonism and anti-
British movement, the ideological intellectualism of the middle class
was struggling to find strategies of containment in various fields of
creative activity. The age-old concept of a coercive aesthetics of
"divine bliss" and the appropriation of the cultural life and
elemental human experience of the majority came to have little
significance in the newly evolved performance praxis which clearly was
being determined by the social contradictions of the times. Here, art
and performance became a highly conscious and rational social activity
for the new playwrights who were basically social reformers first and
foremost. The shaping spirit of this newly emerged theatre practice
with an aggressive aesthetic and performance orientation gave birth to
another genre totally new to Malayalam theatre which found its
expression in K. Damodaran's Pattabakki (1936). Considered as the
first political play in Malayalam, Pattabakki rooted itself in the
anti-feudal consciousness of the people, which was getting manifested
in the struggles of the peasants against feudal landlordism supported
by the British regime. A new structure of human experience,
determined, by the socio-political reality undertook the task of
vehemently challenging the hegemonic ideology of the times. This new
performance pattern which was basically realistic reached every nook
and corner of Kerala to establish a lasting effect upon the future
developments in the radical theatre practice of Kerala.

Thus, it can be surmised that with K. Damodaran's Pattabakki Malayalam
theatre practice came of age in 1937 and the subsequent developments
in Kerala theatre very clearly indicates the class-contradictions
embedded at the core of the fast changing social formations

Structure wise also the play is interesting. At one level it has a
documentary nature that episodically builds up. The different scenes
are charged with emotions but the story develops between each scenes.
The play has 14 scenes that take place in verandah of a small and
decaying hut, a small teashop in the town, the house of the landlord,
a street, a small shop, and police station, the office room of the
barn of the landlord, under a tree in a street, a prostitution house,
and a jail. The locales of scenes suggest the locales where political
and social power is operated. The play is written in the realistic
style but it is not the naturalism but a suggestive realism is suited
for this work. The earlier productions of this play has been on the
realistic melodramatic overtones and was over projecting the emotional
content of the radical political stands of the play making it a
simplistic sloganistic piece. It is noteworthy that the play did not
give a direct answer to the problems it raises but ends in open. When
asked what to be done o face such grave exploitation the central
character just say that ‘I will tell you”

A Brechtian approach in a didactic and open structure will make the
play a new experience. The episodical narrative is addressing the
audience directly and mostly talks to them enhancing the dialectical
nature of this play. The play is presented in an open space where
each of the scenes are arranged in different spaces with suggestive
realistic set pieces and props and the audience is made to shift
attention from space to space.

The period of this production is set during the 1960s even if the
issues raised in this play transcend spaces and time. It is valid as
long as the social structure is existing that oppresses the working
class people.

Thematically the play speaks about agriculture, the farmer the land
owner and the relationships between them and the exploitation. At
present even agriculture as a social activity is almost extinct from
Kerala life and it will be interesting to enquire the passion with
which our farmers worked on the field even under sheer exploitation.
It is the sheer social situation that makes the protagonist to thieve
and the female lead to opt for prostitution. Theft and prostitution
are approached by the playwright not as sin but as the result of
social pressure n the oppressed. The presentation of the play in this
era will be interesting in this approach to prostitution and thieves
and the fake morality that prevails today.

The cast of the play is Sukanya Shaji, Vijayakumar, Govind Nambiar, TS
Asha Devi, Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam, N.Somasundaran, Harikrishnan.S,
Shirly Somasundaran, Madan Kolavil, MS Raghunadh, Kalamandalam
Kesavan, VR Selvaraj, Santhosh Piravam, Damodaran Nambothiri,
Prasanth, MR Manikantan, Sanosh Palluruthi, Amar Mohan, Pradeep
Chittoor, Shaji Nayarambalam, & Meghanadhan

The technical crew comprises of Jolly Antony (Set), Bijibal (Music),;
Shirly Somasundaran, (Costume Design): Anoop Kalarikkal, (Art
&Properties),: Pradeep Chittoor (Production In Charge & Make Up), and
Gireesh Menon (Lighting)

Pattabakki will be staged on 19th evening at Changampuzha Park
Edappally, Kochi. This is the 5th show of Pattabakki

[Chandradasan AA]

Thanks mahesh for spreading the news further

Love

--
Chandradasan
Artistic Director
Lokadharmi, Kochi.INDIA

www.lokadharmi.org
www.chandradasan.blogspot.com