The festivities were somewhat different this year. As Zoom meet-ups took over the usual Diwali parties and online gifting became the norm, people soon looked to make that gifting extra-special, relevant and customised. And performing arts became a natural source.
A theatre group announced on its social media handles how one can ‘gift a session of fun and laughter’. It wasn’t a stand-up comic act they were talking about, but an ‘Improv for Wellness’ programme titled ‘Fear of Failure’. For the uninitiated, Improv or Improvisational theatre is unscripted and spontaneous theatre.
Words like depression and anxiety have finally come out of the closet with public figures talking about their personal experiences.
It has suddenly become easier to accept what one is going through. However, the past eight months saw mental health issues become talked-about like never before. And that’s where virtual spaces like theatre acted as a leveller. Actor Vidushi Mehra explains, “Theatre is hugely transformational and immensely beneficial.
A person who isn’t an actor can use some of the tools from an actor’s toolbox to gain a perspective and understanding and view their problems more objectively.” During the pandemic, Mehra started short online courses called Actors Toolbox, meant to guide people tackle different emotions. For Kaivalya Plays, who’ve been working tirelessly in this area, the pandemic meant more reasons to enhance their repertoire. Their latest workshop, Fear of Failure, dealt with the concepts of everyday failures, fear and anxiety. This series of multi-arts initiatives to explore issues related to mental health had been going on even before the lockdown started.
But, things changed during the lockdown. Varoon P Anand, artistic director, Kaivalya Plays, believes the pressure of being around family during festivities makes people more anxious. He says, “It is always during these months that people want to look for help. Our first job is to remind people that there is absolutely nothing abnormal, but rather their reaction is the normal response.” Among the many workshops and activities that Kaivalya has engaged in during the lockdown, Improv for Wellness has been an integral part.
Stuti Kanungo, communications manager at Kaivalya, says, “Initially the workshops were conducted on a monthly basis but during the lockdown we took the decision to offer them on a weekly basis, as we recognised the need of providing people with a safe space in these tough and challenging times. We conducted the Improv for Wellness workshops (formerly known as Headspace) for 15 consecutive weeks. Post that we took a short break to re-evaluate our offering and re-launched the programme on World Mental Health Day in October.” Theatre for mental health isn’t a new thing.
Over the years, actors have taken to theatre to help people deal or face certain emotions. Decades before social media was born, a clutch of theatre people were toiling hard to drive this point home. “In 1996, we did a play called She is Mad where we talked about the problems of the implementation of the Mental Health Act. This dealt with the whole issue of where madness lies,” says Sanjay Kumar, founder Pandies theatre group. Kumar, who has spent years doing activist theatre, adds, “In the current times that we’re living in, the line between sanity and insanity are practically non-existent.
Every other person is bipolar or dealing with some kind of mental issues.” Agrees senior theatre actor Sohaila Kapur, “Theatre is extremely cathartic. It always helps psychologically when you’re not yourself and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. In an oblique way, you’re able to gauge your responses.” Kapur’s theatre group, One World Theatre, has been performing plays of writers including Ismat Chughtai, Saadat Hasan Manto and others online during the pandemic. In the new year, one hopes that theatre is able to help people take off the mask associated with mental health issues.
“Theatre is hugely transformational and immensely beneficial. A person who isn’t an actor can use some of the tools from an actor’s toolbox to gain a perspective and understanding and view their problems more objectively.” Vidushi Mehra