M Jimmy Chishi
In the beginning,
God created the great stage.
…………..but who taught;
tis first child of ours…
how to cry?,
and who ?,for the first time,
walked with our weeping child -…….
The origin of the artist in us is still as much a mystery as it was. Probably it is this status quo, that still maintains the existence of creativity, and with it the artist in this world…. Thankfully this happens, not to be the subject matter of this article. Here we are rather interested in the, ‘why factor’. Why this artist? And this because the subject relates directly to so many of our existential queries. This article is not about who taught? but rather why the first child was taught. This article is about why we all need to take revive, explore – traditional theatre.
Dr Deszo Zsilagyi, the famous Hungarian puppeteer and president UNIMA, Hungary (a Global puppet organization) in his article, ‘THE PUPPET ARTIST AND HIS AUDIENCE’ (Sutradhar magazine-1997) writes about this artist in the following words, “the ‘raison de etre’ of the artist is the rapport he has with the audience, in other words his ability to communicate”. Further he writes, “Why is it that the effectiveness of this communication has decreased in the recent decades and with it, the importance of the artist? How can we explain the decline in popularity of the theatre in general and more specifically, why the puppet theatres have been steadily losing their popular appeal despite attempts for the contrary? It would be a mistake to blame television – chewing gum of the eyes. The problem is rather that the theatre is nowadays failing to provide a meaningful answer to the fundamental existentialist questions of mankind at a time when people are increasingly raising these questions”
How true! … undoubtedly the purpose of the artist is to answer our queries about the existential problems-the reality around us, a purpose to help us in this modern mad race. Desgo further in this article writes about the origin of puppetry, about how people created puppetry to express relationship between themselves and their ancestors, angel, God,-as a personification of the invisible will. Deszo writes, “thus in the practice of puppetry, theatre, there was a HEALING FORCE”.
On close analysis, all sane forms of expression/entertainment, i.e. music dance, drum beats even a normal conversation – seem to have a, ‘theatrical gene ‘, in them and therefore need this, ‘ healing force ‘, for their very survival. And this remains true even at the most intimate level- the intrapersonal level, don’t we hum sing gesture to troubleshoot of enjoy…entertain ourselves?!
In order to fulfill these needs, of answering/fulfilling our existentialist queries, our ancestors devised ways of expressing – in songs, dances, hymns. And there exist today so many different forms of expression/entertainment, music videos, game shows on television etc being the recent inclusions. The communication revolution of the 2000’s is going to introduce so many more in this light and this especially of the P.C, mobile phone genre.
However on closer analysis there does seem to exist a common thread that binds all these forms of expression/communication/entertainment. This dominant trait being the, ‘theatrical gene’, in all of them! And of the various forms, it’s the traditional theatre (puppet, precinium, street),that undoubtedly presents maximum concentration of this trait- ‘theatrical gene’. These three and especially street theatre is the most original of the different forms of expression/entertainment. These three have been classified as traditional theatre, so as to distinguish it from the popular modern theatre, i.e. TV soap operas, film etc. thus taking note of the fact that theatre is so important, it all so rings in our mind that the traditional theatre its most original form should be very popular.
Traditional theatre/entertainment is not a, ‘steel compartment term’, and its definition ought to be contextualized. It is taught in most universities around the globe, as an accompanying subject. Being the root of human expression it remains an important subject of enquiry and all this in defense of the artist – as expressed by Dr Deszo.
Traditional entertainment however is unfortunately suffering from something like a generation gap, they have failed to communicate to contextualize… otherwise our present issues of concern, poverty, class struggle ,disease social evils – could all be explored so well by them. They have failed to provide the healing touch and therefore have become defunct. The need exists therefore, that we rise to the occasion and wake up the artist to revive traditional entertainment.
In this effort technology can interestingly play such a constructive role as a facilitator. Examples like NDTV’s Great Indian tamasha, Double Take le Guignol in Paris, shows like Sesame Street come to light. A few years back with art from Le Guignol, France NDTV, one of India prominent television news channel, started the show Double take and Great Indian Tamasha – Both high end modern puppet shows This show, influenced by French political satire went on to produce contemporary puppet satire shows. It was an immense success! This consisted of a television team of artists, puppeteers all in the pursuit of creating the, “healing touch’. The recent visit to Pakistan by the team as a peace initiative and also the, ‘Patna coverage’, were immense success!
Inspite of being such a universal entity, quite ironically, traditional theatre has a very, ‘son of the soil’-cultural engrain. In this light are the innumerable traditional theatres like, Burmese puppet theatre, Balinese, Vietnamese water puppets, the south Indian puppet theatre, the street theatres of various cities and towns, Safdar Hashmi and his world famous leftist Delhi street theatre etc, come to light . This is a positive quality as most practical to addressing to the issues of the spaces concerned – the approach not only being most practical but also most effective.
On a closing note, it therefore seems imperative that we revive and explore traditional theatre and let it flourish in all possible ways and routes. This seems a prerequisite of balanced social-individual development and a root factor to democratic expression. Nagaland and Dimapur in particular need much more of traditional theatre. This space could surely be the, ‘buffer zone’, ‘binding factor’, the ‘healing force’, to all our social woes. So let us commit ourselves to revive the artist; let’s promote, involve, and encourage – traditional entertainment.
And God teaches,
Of two paths….
The first – way to illusions
The other road to theatre
