
BENGALURU: Imagine a world where silence speaks louder than words or where musical instruments create a space to unfold a story that strives to speak for itself. It is You, the brainchild of Vivek Vijayakumaran and Pangambam Tyson Meitei, by Our Theatre Collective is one such experience that promises to bring unconventional storytelling to centre stage.
This two-person, no-dialogue play is set to premiere at Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar, on Jan 31 – inviting art lovers to experience theatre that is beyond the ordinary – where music and silence culminate to speak volumes.
Around two years ago, Vijayakumaran had a calling to respond to the religious intolerance that was stirring up the nation and making headlines. The image struck him and later concluded in the birth of this play after a two-year development phase of creative exploration.
With several challenges and financial troubles along the way, Vijayakumaran engaged in multiple readings, disagreements, and presentations with people from different religious backgrounds to shape the play to the point of a premiere. “For me, it’s a creative impulse that makes me work, it is not dependent on the funding, otherwise the creative energy goes off,” mentions Vijayakumaran.
The turning point was a transformative six-day workshop led by Prabath Bhaskaran, a renowned theatre performer. Bhaskaran shared a tribal song about interdependency through perspectives of different parts of a tree, that answered many questions Vijayakumaran had in mind and finally pushed him to move further with the project.
“In today’s world, we see a lot of ‘cancel culture’, which I don’t think is the way forward. You have to be able to appreciate how we are still interconnected and we have to make space for the opposite. For that, we have to make the bridge available through conversations and that should be our fight. We are all consequences of our past, collectively, individually, socially and politically. So, we can find appreciation for that and think about how we can come together,” says Vijayakumaran.
The play had a first presentation at Manipur Kalakshetra and after a good response, the team now looks forward to presenting it to different cultures and communities where the audience can witness art transcending words and differences through the universal language of music and expression.
But how deeply can art communicate without words? How does one present co-existence and harmony through an act? The answer lies in this play consisting of two characters who are in conflict with each other and, in the larger context of planet Earth , a third character who is more powerful than them. The play promises to pose important questions and answer them.
(The play will be performed on January 31 and February 1 at Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar)