BENGALURU: It is important for all of us to break myths, to break superstition and have a scientific bent of mind. Question everything that comes your way. And theatre is a great way of life. It wakes you up to your shortcomings. To be able to say what is in your heart and have the words to express it, is the heart of theatre. Welcome to this world of theatre, and welcome to the world of science. Don’t ever become blind followers. Our generation has given you a world where you have to keep the value of the word ‘Why’ alive,” said renowned thespian and actor Arundhati Nag, to a crowd of young students in her inauguration speech at the National Science Drama Festival (NSDF).
The event, organised by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) on Kasturba Road, was a two-day festival happening on January 5 and 6. Started in December 2000, the national round of NSDF, the ultimate stage of a festival that started from lower levels, gave opportunities to students from all across India who embraced the rationale of science with the art of theatre.
“We are exploring the idea of how to communicate science to the public in different forms. Organising it for over 20 years now, we have found that it’s a very powerful medium. No one else in the world has organised a science and drama festival in a museum setting. Here, you are not limiting the children to only the knowledge of science. If they’re a good performer, they would be able to successfully explain scientific concepts that are not visible to us through the naked eye. Outside of the students, the teachers also participate, and this gives them a way to involve the students with science in a storytelling format,” shares Samarendra Kumar, deputy director general of the National Council of Science Museums.
In the past, NSDF wasn’t a singular event. “Earlier, we were doing it along with the science fair. But over many years, we observed that drama struck a chord with the audience and there was a lot of response from people. So then, we started organising NSDF as a separate event. It starts from the district level, then state level, then zonal level and then finally culminates with the national level,” says K A Sadhana, director of VITM.
Bengaluru is a city that has deeply dabbled in both science and theatre. It has premiere scientific organisations like the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Space Research Organisation and Raman Research Institute, it also has elite theatre associations like Ranga Shankara and Jagriti Theatre. Kumar believes that makes this city one of the best places to host a festival like NSDF. “Any city like Bengaluru, which has a kind of blend of both art and science, can be a great host for such festivals. They will also have the facility to organise such events. It’s good we have institutions where such a multi-disciplinary event can be held,” says Kumar.
Manash Bagchi, the senior curator at VITM, believes communicating science through drama is not a new phenomenon. “An early example of the confluence of science and theatre was when the 20th-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht wrote the play Galileo, based on the inquisition of Galileo Galilei by the Church. Another instance is a play that ran for 30 years in London. During World War II, physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg found themselves on opposite ends. Bohr was working with the Allies, and Heisenberg, while disagreeing with Hitler, had to work in Germany. Despite sharing great reverence for each other, circumstances borne in them not only a political rivalry but also a scientific one. So, sometimes it is a philosophical issue and sometimes a moral one. But if it is written well, you can take any scientific conflict and frame it theatrically,” concludes Bagchi.