Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Broadway comes calling to Birmingham

“The Quality of a Play is in the Quality of its Ideas” - George Bernard Shaw

On Sunday, May 16, 2010, Birmingham had its brush with GP Rajarathnam, an iconic writer, playwright and satirist, and T Sunandamma, a pioneer writer and humorist.

Kriyative Theater of Bangalore staged two plays “Ratnan Parpancha” and “Heegadre Hege” under the aegis of Sahyadri Alabama Kannada Kutumba. The plays, presented by a team of only four artists, were a display of professional theater at its best.

To all of us non-resident Indians not exposed to such artistry, it was just as instructive as it was entertaining. It was astonishing to see the actors’ transition from one character to another aided no doubt by the supreme make-up expertise of Ramakrishna Kannarpadi. The acting honors were shared by Lakshmi Chandrashekar, Gajanana, Ramakrishna and Sundar while the music was composed by Gajanana.

We kicked-off the afternoon with 30 minutes of socializing. Ananth’s Chikmagalur coffee, Meera’s cabbage vaadi and Madhu’s pakodas set the right tempo and got us ready for the main course. Aditi and Susmita invoked the God’s blessings with a mellifluous rendition of the song “Namaami Saraswathi”. Parvathi welcomed the audience and gave a brief profile of the afternoon’s thespians and their plays.

Ratnan Parpancha presented in a non-traditional format managed to capture the highlights of GP Rajarathnam’s life quite effectively. No play of any length, much less one of a 75-minute duration, can completely capture GPR’s life. However, a well chosen medley of events from his life, embellished with creativity and poetic license, did manage to give us an essence of the man and his work. The tribulations of a struggling writer - GPR selling his books, “Kevala naak ane saar; dayavittu book kondkoli saar” was gut-wrenching and brought tears to many an eye - when presented on stage can easily degenerate into an exercise in melodrama. This play effectively dodged that by good use of humor. That GPR was able to see humor in/despite his travails and did not let his life degenerate into a vacuous insignificance exemplifies the man, his character and his literary genius. The scenes of the SriVaishnava housewife reciting an Alwar hymn, his daughter’s music class and Ramakrishna’s wonderful cameo as a drunkard especially stood out. Most of the audience felt this was the best depiction of a drunkard ever seen! I couldn’t agree more. It is a common malaise to see actors overact, especially when portraying a drunkard or a mentally challenged person, but Ramakrishna was not guilty of that. Gajanana’s impersonation of Vaatal Nagaraj was spot on. If Vaatal were present in the audience he would have thought he was looking at a mirror! And then, what’s a play about GPR without his immortal “Ratnan Padagalu”? Gajanana provided us just that with his folksy tunes that stood out as much as the lyrics that they are set to. Mysore Ananthswamy’s rendition was just as memorable and did full justice to the lyrics. Even the actor’s costumes semaphored GPR’s character. Think about it…not a mean achievement at all! The humorous Kambli Seve was a fitting end to Ratnan Parpancha. It had everybody peeling with laughter. Somebody, lift me off the floor please!

We then had a brief interlude, during which we were witness to a memorable shraddanjali to Vishnuvardhan, C Ashwath and KS Ashwath by Dr. Krishnamurthy and a scintillating taniyaavardhana with Avinash on mridangam and Vikash on kanjira. After this interlude we were ready for the next flavor of the evening, the play Heegadre Hege, albeit an abridged version.

As Sundar aptly pointed out in his introduction, Heegadre Hege is a concoction of Sunandamma’s plays and writing. Unlike Ratnan Parpancha, this is a high octane tour-de-force of the satirical takes on life around us. Employing various devices like the slow motion cavorting towards each other (a classic Brechtian alienation device), brilliant costumes and makeup, and lilting music, it took us from the Kannadization of Mylariah to the aspirations of Saraswathamma in different episodes strung together by some great acting by the protagonists Sundar and Lakshmi Chandrashekar. It is said that comedy is all about timing. Both Lakshmi and Sundar exhibited this in copious measure. Their on-stage chemistry was quite fabulous and one of the best that we have seen.

Well, what more can I say! It was theater at its best that excelled in every department. The professionalism and alacrity with which the actors flowed from one scene to the next were impressive. The props used on stage (it took the artists about two hours to put the props together!) were apropos. The improvisation shown by the artists was truly amazing – the scenes with the kids and the scene sans the harmonium are a testament to that. The costumes and make-up were apposite and easy on the eyes. The background commentary and music were euphonious. The acting was par excellence. Bette Davis once said, “Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.” Thanks to these artists from Kriyative Theatre that is what we witnessed. That the audience hosannaed the artists and their plays with a standing ovation at the end was justification enough that the afternoon would surely leave an enduring memory in all that were privy to it!

Nagaraj concluded the event with a felicitation of the artists and the best vandanaarpane I have seen/heard. Kanda kanda pathiye daiva – hilarious! On behalf of SAKK I would like to thank Mangala and Krishna for opening this door for us, Vishwa and THTCCB Board for helping us with the auditorium, Kiran Shah for helping us with the acoustics, Kitti for helping us collect membership dues, the innumerable volunteers who helped behind the scenes (with coffee, snacks, clean-up, etc.,) the SAKK coordinating committee for putting everything together and above all, every member for his/her support and encouragement. This event would not have been possible without y’all. I am not sure if a Kannada play would ever be staged on Broadway. We did however get a glimpse of what that would be like if and when that happens. I am very hopeful that this event is a harbinger of greater things for SAKK!

Siri Gannadam Gelge!

Raj Gopalachar

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