Director’s Note

The performance of my play starts from the selection of the script. If the central idea of a play stimulates you and haunts you throughout than definitely it possesses certain potentials. If a play affects me today and I forget it after months than the thought of doing a play is lost. While I was studying in the National School of Drama, I read Aristophanes' "Lesastrata" in which the unusual idea of women in opposition of the war left a great impact on me. The thought of doing this play in the last thirty to thirty two years, came across my mind many atimes but it remained an aspiration.

The recent change in the global scenario, likewise, inthe last two decades whatever has happened in the name of war, the sorts of reasons which were found or created hinted a new war policy in which the reasons were formulated and assembled to surround and destroy the target completely. For that matter, in the wars of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka or the wars between North and South Korea, or within Germany, there is a reflection of the direct/indirect involvement of the world power. During the bombarding in the war of Iraq, people used to wait the entire day in order to watch the telecast of the bombarding in the evening with great interest. The seriousness of the destruction caused by multiple wars didn't disturb the people. Though we were not affected directly but this sort of insensitivity saddened me. The thought of doing this play re-occurred in mind. So, the central idea of the play led to the initiative of creating a new play. The process of the play started with a new plot, dialogues, improvisation, and working with the actors. The central idea of the play is the revolt of the women folk against the king's ambition of ruling the world and emerging as a supreme power.

The breakdown of Russia resulted in the imbalance of the world power leading to the sequence of direct-indirect wars. Such policies led to the monstrous expansion of terrorism. Gender equality is another important aspect of the play. Even after the sixty five years of Independence, the women reservation bill has not been passed in the parliament. There has been a constant politics to bereave country's half population from their right because of which they have to continuously ask for their active participation in the decision of policy and law making of the country. The form of the dialogue is not poetry, yet lyrical as this play is a stylized play and not a realistic play. The creative process of the play in sighted me towards a new theatrical language. In spite of the narrative style, the audience will experience varied audio-visual design. The language is guided by gender. In various rural dialects of the country, women often speak like men. There is no room for women in the language. Specially, in the plural construct the language remains masculine. While speaking the gender dignity shatters.

In theatre production the stylization is confined to folk or traditional art forms. Various experimentations have been done. If we take note of fifty important plays post independence most of them are stylized plays. But from the past few years there has been a decline in such productions. The structure, the form, device and philosophy of the play should be indigenous and have a native connect. Be it a text, image, word, sound or rhythm, their perception solely depends on you. It's not understood why we hesitate to apply Indian theatre philosophy? I respect each and every form of theatrical expression. I have also done realistic plays but then you decide a way for yourself. The stylization is prevalent in our country in all art forms from Kashmir to kanyakumari or North-east to West. It is the soul of our cultural expression, then where lies the point of hesitation?

We should rather re-interpret, redefine with the usage of new technique, we should reenergize and make it a medium of strong expression. Dario-fo also used Comedia-del-arte, a form similar to Bhand Pather, Nakkal and Tamasha to construct plays of sociopolitical concern. This has been the largest achievement in playwriting in past thirty-forty years which bagged a Nobel Prize.

If this is also possible in Augusto Baul's theatre then why not here? I personally feel, here we have numerous possibilities. The only requirement is to create, with confidence, a new theatre language. Our traditional art forms give us that leverage. We only require the people to experiment with it. This year has marked the centenary of the First World War. It's a tribute to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives and also in the memory of civilians who became victim of that destruction.