Sakshi—Her Story, by playwright Gowri Ramnarayan, is about socio-political fallouts through a woman’s narrative. The monodrama showcases three characters from her plays: Night’s End, Flame of the Forest, and Sarpa Sutra.
CHENNAI: For playwright-director Gowri Ramnarayan, theatre has always been a platform to express her fears, raise questions and bear witness to the happenings around her. “I don’t want to give a message or advice through my plays. I am bearing witness to my age and time. So ultimately it’s the story of the playwright and the actors,” shares Gowri, as we sit over a cup of coffee at her Alwarpet residence, to chat about her play — Sakshi — Her Story, a monodrama produced by her art company Justus Repertory, which will be staged this weekend.
In October 2015, while the playwright was travelling in the US with another production, she received some very good news. “I got a call that my daughter Akhila has won the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award — instituted by Sangeet Natak Akademi. Until then, I thought only dancers and musicians received it and this came as a pleasant surprise!” she recalls.
But the ceremony was not just about receiving the award. The winning artiste also had to perform a play. “I was reaching the city only by November end and the ceremony was in December first week. There was no time for us to choose a play and rehearse after I landed. So, as I was travelling through many cities, I wrote this play based on three plays that I had written already,” she narrates. There are three women characters from her plays — Night’s End, Flame of the Forest, and Sarpa Sutra — and the entire play is through their narration.
Amid the floods in Chennai, Gowri and Akhila made it to the award ceremony in Agarthala. “We travelled to Bengaluru by jeep and then took a flight to Agarthala. Akhila rehearsed everywhere — in the airport, on the flight, in the room and performed it during the ceremony. Except the costume, everything else were borrowed. The other artistes helped us and Akhila performed the play amid all the chaos,” recalls Gowri. After almost two years of performing it on stage, rehearsing today for the same play, makes Gowri nostalgic and even confused! “This looks like a totally new play to me. We had performed the play in such a rush and I don’t remember what we actually did,” she laughs.
The three characters — Chandni, a woman from the Mogiya tribe in present day Rajasthan, Sivakami, a temple dancer from the Pallava Kingdom (Tamil Nadu — 600 CE) and Jaratkaru, a Naga woman in the Mahabharata — from different periods, bear witness from the margin to their lives and times. The first story — Sarpa Sutra, is a dance theatre production about a revenge cycle running through generations. “It examines the roots of ethnic cleansing and environmental depredations — through the eyes of the Naga woman Jaratkaru. It’s a powerful story from mythology but, I am only using it as a contemporary metaphor,” she clarifies.
The second story — Flames of the Forest, is a free adaptation of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s, Sivagamiyin Sabatham, which was produced as a play with about 15 characters by Gowri in 2008. But in Sakshi, the story of the war between the Chalukyas and the Pallavas is narrated by the victim. “Sivakami was kidnapped by the Chalukyas as she was one of the most prized artists in the Pallava kingdom. She was a trophy to show their triumph over the Pallavas,” she shares. Though Sivakami was a fictional chcracter, the war is not. “This story is a powerful metaphor of how children and women are brutalised.”
The final act is about Chandni, a character from Night’s End. “I have been deeply affected by climate change and environmental deprivation. If we lose a forest, there’s no recovery. This story is told by a Mogiya tribal woman,” she adds. “They are an obscure race and she narrates the story of the destruction of the tribe by the advancement of the modern world. They are nomads, without the forest, their indigenous life and culture is destroyed.”
Sakshi means witness and, all the three women tell their story of bearing witness their surroundings, amid being caught in complex socio-political webs. “There’s a saying — Every time a moth opens its wing and closes it in the deep Brazilian forest, it affects the world...it has an impact. Every life form has its place. The moment we destroy one thing we destroy something else,” avers Gowri.
Talking about women oriented plays, she says that they are now in vogue, but for all the right reasons. “It wasn’t a conscious effort to write a women-oriented play, it just happened. But, in general, any performance with a women-oriented theme — dance, music or theatre is well received,” she adds.
‘Night’s End’ in London
Gowri Ramnarayanan’s Night’s End will be staged in front of mainstream London audience at Soho theatre towards the end of November. “This is the first time a mainstream foreign theatre has invited us to perform and naturally, we are excited!” she grins.
‘Sakshi - Her Story’ will be performed by Akhila Ramnarayan as part of Theatrepuram Edition #6 at Wandering Artist, RA Puram on October 21 & 22 from 6:30pm onwards. For details, call 9840111425