Delhi-based theatre director Devesh Nigam lets the audience do the writing. In return, he gets a relook and a deeper view of his own work. Nigam’s play Death on Stage, performed at Delhi’s Akshara Theatre recently, was a result of generous improvisations written and guided by his audience. Nigam who had first staged the play in February this year used the feedback to develop, change and transform the script for presenting it the second time. “I handed out paper to the audience at the end of the play and patiently waited for them to write their suggestions. While I was going through the feedback sheets, I was thrilled to see that some of them had even scribbled the dialogues. I shared the feedback with the cast during the theatre workshops. We worked on the script and dabbled with the suggested dialogues and changes. It worked out pretty well.”
The democratic effect of this generous exercise is evident in the chaotic, racy, and at times, hilarious scenes in Death on Stage, a play about a bunch of actors who deal with the idea and perception of death over a rehearsal. “The title of the play”, says Nigam, “came from my thoughts on French playwright Moliere’s death on stage.” The dialogues are short, and simple and emotions familiar and honest. The last scene is one of the most noteworthy changes that the interaction with the audience brought to the play. Death, the character, remains silent. It doesn’t thunder a preachy monologue or hurl a devilish laughter at the compact audience. It doesn’t murmur a haunting message or croon an ode to itself. It remains silent. Thankfully. Interestingly, this wasn’t exactly how Nigam had initially planned it. “Death was given a monologue,” Nigam adds. “I had made this change after going through the feedback. It gave us a sharper ending. I had written Death on Stage as a short story first. It worked perfectly well as a play. But I realised that the conversation between characters was turning out to be monotonous. The suggestions from the audience helped in bringing out the element of frustration more crisply.” In the play, the actors make you chuckle, chuckle hard with the profound lines on death as seen “in Mandi House plays” and “in Hindi literature” spoken in ease and innocence. Nigam, who has also directed noted Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena’s Hawalaat and Mohan Rakesh’s Bahut Badaa Sawaal among other plays, says he has noticed a momentous change in the script and performance of Death on Stage between the first rehearsal and the recent staging.
Nigam isn’t a trained director. After graduating from the Delhi College of Engineering a few years ago, he dabbled with the idea of writing and directing. He watched a few plays at Delhi’s Mandi House area, the cultural hub that is home to the National School of Drama and a number of theatre venues. “I was an outsider to theatre. I believe it helped me to a great extent. I could be familiar with the cliches in acting and directing even while I was learning the ropes. I could be at a distance and still judge and appreciate the work of my contemporaries and the seniors while learning.” He quit his job (the first and the last) to write plays and short stories. “I found street plays directed by Arvind Gaur impressive. I got a chance to work with him. It gave me the vision for classics and a sense of appreciation for contemporary theatre,” adds Nigam.
The compact space and structure of the beautiful Akshara Theatre has played a role in giving Nigam an intimate interaction with the audience. “Presenting the play at the compact Akshara auditorium made me learn the value of audience response. There are people I wasn’t expecting to see at the second staging of Death on Stage. They returned to see how their suggestions turned out in the script. It’s a great feeling.”
Back stage
● Devesh likes to make changes to his script constantly and keeps the sets simple.
● The turning point in his perception of directing and writing came during an interaction with the audience in Goa in 2008.
● He is also an independent short film maker. His works include ‘Beti’, ‘U-Turn’ and ‘Talab’.
● Among his favourite plays is ‘Moteram Ka Satyagrah.’