Learnt on stage

Delhi-based theatre group Tadpole Repertory, which will be in town this weekend for a slew of performances, has an interesting story attached to its name.


Bikram Ghosh performs Good Hands

"The word Tadpole is a reference to a story in my first play, Positions, where a character likens his vision of people's thoughts to floating tadpoles. When we were coming up with a name, it seemed appropriate given that our major impetus as a group was to produce theatre that was new, fresh and unusual ufffd and besides Tadpole has a nice prosody to it," explains Neel Chaudhuri, director of the two monologues and a play that Tadpole is bringing to the city.


A still from Taramandal Pics/ Kartikey Shiva

Coming to a city theatre stage with two monologues Good Hands/Godspeed and a play - Taramandal - based on a short story written by Satyajit Ray called Patol Babu, Film Star, the Repertory believes in presenting a kind of theatre that originates from amongst us - not stories about ourselves but those that are relevant and compelling to today. "We are significantly committed to new writing, a versatile and rigorous approach to performance by the actors in the Repertory,u00a0 a minimalist stage lighting design and the employment of ambient sound and original music," says Neel. The Tadpole Repertory was formed by a group of theatre practitioners including Neel in 2005 along with a couple of actors like Bikram Ghosh, Kriti Pant, Andrew Hoffland, Mallika Taneja, Neel Debdutt Paul and Tarun Sharma among others who also moonlight as writers, producers and stage managers for the play.

Getting personal on stage
Good Hands/Godspeed are two monologues that are built around the ideas of recollection and the sharing of experience. Good Hands shows a young man present a slide show of ordinary people he has come across and who he refers to as unsung heroes while narrating humorous anecdotes from their lives. In Godspeed, a girl chances upon a music collection while cleaning out a room that belongs to a dead boy. She seeks solace by listening to his music.

Godspeed has also won the Toto Funds the Arts Award for Creative Writing in 2009. "This kind of monologue is hardly new - perhaps it is the most classic of all, in the long tradition of oral storytelling. The two pieces seek to turn the attention of the writer, performer and spectator inwards, and away from the terse, elocution delivery style of the more established theatre monologue," says Neel.u00a0

According to him, both these monologues were written keeping in mind an intimate theatre space. "As performances, they were designed to be performed with a suspension of the proscenium set-up (a style of theatre where the audience views the play through a constructed arch) common in theatre, as if you were listening to someone in a classroom (as in the case of Good Hands) or in a room in a house (Godspeed). Both monologues were also written specifically for the actors performing them and so seem to tap into elements of their personality and behaviour. Bikram, who performs Good Hands, is an avid comic book fan, for instance, and much of his character was designed to suit his own manner and idiosyncrasies," says Neel.

Though the monologue style of delivery seems to have become a much less preferred form today, Neel still prefers it. "I think the monologue form allows for you to really tease out characters through a singular perspective that changes through the narrative, and changes you as an audience member. I think that's an interesting challenge for both a writer and an actor. With the influence of film, the monologue seems to have become less preferred as a form because dialogue is thought to be more dynamic, more immediately revealing of conflict.u00a0

While both the monologues talk about people who are not really around, Neel feels the connection between the two stories is in the idea of recollection and how the perception of someone can alter through a narrative process. "I suppose that is true of any drama but these stories seem to come from very close to us, from 'lived experience' as the character says in Good Hands. And perhaps that is what is different about these two pieces (and our work in general). The characters often seem like they are people you know and the things that happen to them could very well have happened to you," he adds.

From Ray to the stage
If Good hands/ Godspeed is about sharing experiences and living out somebody else's lives vicariously, then Taramandal, winner of The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award in 2010, is all about the aspirations of a mediocre man who wants to make it in films. Reading Ray's short story several years ago, Neel found it ripe enough material for a film scenario. "But because I have been so heavily immersed in theatre, I didn't really return to it till one day we suddenly brought it up and thought about whether it might work on stage. The story has a disarming simplicity and honesty that holds you when you read it, and presents the story of Patol with both humour and melancholy," he says.

The name Taramandal has a dual meaning, that of a planetarium and constellation. While the planetarium refers to the illusion of stars and the anonymity of a single star in a multitude, the constellation part refers to the cluster of six stories. Apart from the original plot, five other stories have been included as a creative leap to the short story. "In Ray's story, we are told a little about Patol's past life and his failure to make a name for himself as an actor. We took this trajectory and split it up between five other characters, in five other settings so the story would resonate more widely, says Neel. The audience gets to travel from a high school to a small town, a medical college, a casting agent's office in Mumbai and finally an advertising shoot; all the various stages of this story of thwarted ambition

Originally written in Bengali, Taramandal is multilingual and has a smattering of Bengali, English and Hindi. The plot is contemporary but sticks to the original theme of broken dreams and the larger than life world of films and the stage. "I think there is also a great lightness to Taramandal, even though it's a story with tragic proportions," says Neel.

A Sneak Peak into Taramandal
Patol Babu,Film Star tells of a chance opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream. Patol Babu is fifty or so and has led a decidedly unglamorous life. His one passion, acting, has never really amounted to anything apart from a few theatre performances as a child in his local community group or at school. One day the possibility of a part in a film opens up. Despite it being a walk-on role of a pedestrian, Patol embraces the opportunity with open arms. Taramandal extends this little story by constructing parallel narratives that set up and mirror Patol Babu - in younger versions of people just like him. All of these stories of failed ambition in the theatre, movies or television culminate in his one single walk on opportunity.
Courtesy Tadpole Repertory

Good Hands/ Godspeed
On from July 22 to 23, 7.30 pm
Taramandal
On from July 24, 3.30 pm & 7.30 pm
Where Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
Call 9900265874
Log on to www.indianstage.in and www.bookmyshow.com