TRIPUNITHURA: The Second Abhinaya Summer Theatre Festival held at the JT Pac presented three beautiful adaptations of great classics —Lesson, Bhagavadajjukam and Macbeth. Director M G Jyothish did justice to these classics while presenting the dramatic moments in his own signature style.
The first day’s presentation was an adaptation of the absurd play ‘Lesson’ by Eugene Iomesco. As the subject, education, has many untapped vistas with profuse scope for criticism, the director took the maximum freedom to give his own versions for many sequences.
Through the narrative style of story telling the director puts forth many puzzles regarding the very purpose of education. He also deviates from the main track of education through the three characters — a professor, maid and student.
Many Sanskrit plays have been retold by theatre enthusiasts. Among them Bhagavadajjukam of Bodhayana is noted for its content and conceptualisation. The second day of the festival was dedicated to Bhodhayana. In an innovative style the director tried to recreate the full length satirical play by adding contemporary flavour.
It exposes the hollowness of extreme spirituality. A monk and his transformation as a harlot by exchanging the souls gave a solid platform for thespians to portray the pitiable degeneration of values in society. Presenting the Yamadootha with a mobile phone, the monk with spectacles, a smoking Shandilya, Vasanthasena, created ripples of laughter. The inclusion of Thiruvananthapuram slang in certain parts of the play did not work well.
The director’s attempt to portray human beings, Gods, religion, power, culture, art and science as mere commercial products were the highlight of the play. Jyothish tried to portray human nature like concern, desire and greed and, of course, guilty feeling through a series of striking sequences. Using stage craft the director brought out the complicated mindsets of the main characters.
He could narrate the inner fights between the conscious and the sub-conscious minds of human beings to a certain extent. The conversation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth brought out the helplessness of human beings trapped in endless desires.
The performance of D Raghuthaman as monk in Bhagavadajjukam and as Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play deserves special mention. Dr Venu’s Yamadhootha, Tinku’s Vasanthasena in Bhagavadajjukam and Abhija Sivakala’s performance as Lady Macbeth brought out the true beauty of these characters.
Among the properties used for Bhagavadajjukam, the mizhavu was not fully utilised though the Yamadhootha frequently portrayed the symbolic playing of the mizhavu.
