Some five decades ago, a few theatre buffs in Madras got together at the British Council courtyard. They read plays, did theatre workshops and held meetings with seasoned playwrights from around the world. Shakespeare and the classics of the British and American stage soon metamorphosed into English translations
of Indian playwrights — in the 1960s and the ’70s.
If interplay of flair and hard work can yield a wonderful result, then Madras Players is a good
example. It’s two women who spearheaded this movement that founded India’s oldest English theatre group. Grace (Gayatri) Krishnaswami and N S Yamuna aided the Players to choose relevant scripts to showcase their superb skills in acting, even as aspects like costumes, sets and lighting fell into place. “There were so few theatre groups when the
Madras Players came into existence,” Grace reminisces. “We concentrated on classic English plays and then went on to English translations of Indian playwrights, trying out new methods and techniques to perfect our art.”
Yamuna recalls the old days, when the group formed that vital link between pre-Independence English and American theatre and post-Independence Indian theatre — the latter proving to be a veritable treasury. “I was mainly a backstage person, and imbibed theatre, gaining hands-on knowledge. That aided me in my directorial role from 1972 onwards.”
She recalls that many young actors began their careers with us, moving on to form their own theatre groups. “The Madras Players have acted like an umbrella, shielding them till they found the confidence to break away and stand on their own feet,” she notes.
Even in the early days, the actors were strong personalities, many of them creating history on stage. Girish Karnad was part of the group from 1963-70. Translations of Sartre, Pirandello and Chekov shared space with classics of Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, John Osborne, Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Neil Simon...the list goes on. Indian playwrights also found their space in the sun on this stage — Karnad, Vijay Tendulakar, Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Sai Paranjpe, Shreekumar Varma, Poile Sengupta, Mahesh Dattani, Asokamithran, Gurcharan Das, Gowri Ramnarayan, Chetan Bhagat....
For Madras Players, having performed over 240 plays around the country, the year 2000 saw the emergence of the Chennai Playwright, as the group moved on to perform plays by Chennai-based writers. In 2005, the Golden Jubilee was celebrated with Hayavadana, and adding to their repertoire adaptations of popular books such as Mohan Rakesh’s Adhe Adhure, Chetan’s Five Point Someone, Jhumpa Lahiri’s A Temporary Matter and Vasanthi Shankaranarayan’s translation of Madambu’s Bhrashtu, renamed as Outcaste Eternal.
This year, they have already staged two productions. The first, Shreekumar Varma’s Midnight Hotel, in March. Mithran Devanesan took this thrilling concoction, shook it around with élan, and kept the audience on the edge of their seats with incredible special effects. Then, One Day in Ashadha by Mohan Rakesh, which brought to light little known facts about the poet Kalidasa. Translated by V Ramnarayan, and directed by Gowri Ramnarayan, the play brought out the vagaries of
human life and emotions through music, dance and drama.
Gowri used dance sequences set to Kalidasa’s poetry to reflect the emotions of the characters. While there were those who appreciated the ‘play within a play’ endeavour, there were others who felt that the carefully crafted dance items took away from the theme of the actual play. Grace remarks, “I thought that the play combined myriad elements like music, dance and drama very skillfully, bringing out the beauty of Kalidasa’s poetry.”
Ram looks back on his association with the Madras Players with pride. “The journey has been terrific. A number of young actors used us as a launch pad to kick-start their own acting careers, and we are very proud of them. In fact, our next two ventures are also by young Chennai-based artistes. R K Narayan’s Swami and Friends adapted by Manasi Subramaniam and directed by Aruna Ganesh Ram premieres in October. The second play scheduled for November is a Pakistani play titled Tunnel Vision, adapted and directed by Nikhila Kesavan.” Much to look forward to indeed, as the Madras Players set out to excel, as always!
Contemporary Chennai bustles with new theatre offerings... a musical like Mamma Mia or an unearthly thriller like Blithe Spirit, EVAM’s spoof on Hamlet, or Theatre Nisha’s presentation of The Pregnant King. As Alfred Hitchcock once remarked, “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out!”
— The writer is a freelance journalist based in Chennai. deepsmenon_7@yahoo.com
