THRISSUR: Almost 25 years ago, award-winning theatre director Sasidharan Naduvil translated ‘The Balcony' written by French dramatist Jean Genet, around the same time that he had adapted another of Genet's works ‘Deathwatch' for the thespian arena.
“Every so often I would flick through the play, but never got around to actually scripting a performance till last year,” laughs Sasidharan. And as fate would have it, this production turned out to be the only theatre piece from the state to be nominated for the prestigious Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) 2016.
The play, ‘The Balcony', will also be performed at META stage, New Delhi, on March 7. Sasidharan Naduvil has been nominated as the Best Director & Best Costume Design, Sunitha V for Best Actor in a supporting Role (Female) and Shaji Surender for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male).
Written in Genet's signature style embodying irreverence and contempt for existing societal structure, the absurdist and subversive play takes place in a high end brothel where the clientele can indulge their darkest fantasies by role playing as the society's powerful. In one room, a bishop elicits a confession from a sinner played by a prostitute.
In other rooms, a General rides to war atop a prostitute hunched down like a mare and a judge garishly attempts to extract a confession from a thief who is continually lashed by an executioner. While the role playing continues, a bloody civil war wages outside the brothel as the city is slowly taken over by a rebel group.
The play entails a steady, yet subtle breakdown of boundary between the real and the illusory, as the gun shots and bomb blasts of the ongoing rebellion manages to slowly seep into the brothel and trigger anxiety among the clients.
The brothel owner, Irma, waits anxiously for the arrival of the Police Chief. On his part, the Police Chief is disappointed to know that no client wanted to imitate him in the brothel.
Backed by strong performances from the entire cast and crew to the light, set and music executions, the director opens the technically demanding performance with the stage on flames as the rebels take over the city.
A damning indiction on the present social hierarchy, the play exposes the power axes controlling the system and the constant need for an antagonist to appropriate their own authority. In a stirring scene, the role playing judge licks the feet of the thief-prostitute and begs her to confess to thieving.
“You have to be a model thief if I am expected to be a model judge. If you're a false thief then I become a false judge,” he says.