A Fresh Look at Pirandello: Sansriti’s Kothakar Charitra Kothaey Rekhechho

A Fresh Look at Pirandello: Sansriti’s Kothakar Charitra Kothaey Rekhechho

 

It has been six decades that the theatre goers of Calcutta had had the opportunity of experiencing a very new genre of play that googlyed them clean bowled. It was Nandikar’s 1961 production of Natyakarer Sandhaney Chha’ti Charitra, a play adapted by Rudraprasad Sengupta from Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 play Six Characters in Search of an Author, and made by Ajitesh Bandopadhyay. In spite of being aware of the fact that the afore said sentence does not give the reader any new information, I feel elated to reiterate the dry facts just because it gives me a chance to pay my homage to the great playwright, to the man who adapted the play to a Bengali setting, and of course to the man who took the risk of staging such an unconventional play in such an experimental form and that too, for a new theatre group. I had been fortunate enough to have been an awe-struck viewer of the Nandikar creation in the later years of its production; but that is history.

Once again, I have had the occasion to be a witness of a very fresh and brilliant work of the same play entitled Kothakar Charitra Kothaey Rekhechho staged by Sansriti on their 31^st under the baton of Debesh Chatterjee at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Debesh has kept the version of Rudraprasad almost unaltered except for a few additions and adjustments for the sake of his presentation, and of course kept it unadulterated. This is a very significant point to be noted as it is common to find doctoring and morphing the original in the name of a face-lift. It is shocking to find even Tagore goes under the scalpel in an attempt to ‘give the play a modern perspective and look’! However in this case the viewer should thank Providence that Debesh had his senses in place.

It is pointless to discuss this iconic play of Pirandello. Every keen theatre enthusiast knows how this play creates a magic by intermingling the real world and the reality of the make belief world of theatre. The dramatist questions which of the two are real – the actor or the character he is playing? The question in other words could be that if realistic acting is a truth in itself then isn’t truth too an illusion? Pirandello was in fact in quest of the relativity of truth in the perspective of subjectivity. Truth can never be absolute. One may wonder perhaps that was the reason why Einstein after seeing the play told Pirandello, ‘We are soul-mates’.

One can go on babbling for hours about this play. But at the same time, it should also be acknowledged that it is one of the toughest jobs in world-theatre to stage it. Debesh has done it. He has amazingly blended realism with absurdism, as well as discerned objectivity from subjectivity with such deftness. This gives the uninitiated viewer a lesson in the way of life. He has done this in his process of building the play. In the making process, the play-maker has extracted out the deeper undertones that hid in between the lines of the written script by the dramatist. This only helps to bring the profound meanings, the suggestiveness, the hints and cues that Pirandello wanted to communicate into the perception of the viewers. The totality of the dramatic performance and the associated elements had to be flawless in order to do this. Debesh in his mounting could achieve this impact. He has been very watchful on both the physical as well as the verbal departments of acting of his players. He has also through his scenographic designing given substantial importance in working out the space on the stage, and its sharing between the players. A perfect mise-en-scene is very important in staging of such plays, and this production is a lesson for the students of play-making, no doubt.

He has kept spontaneity as well as extemporaneity in acting as they are integral to the realistic acting form. As the script requires the make-belief aspect of expression, he does it so dexterously that the viewer is confused to get hold of the situation happening in front of him. But Debesh’s handling of the realistic acting of the theatre group and that of the intruders is astonishing as there had to be a textural difference in the delivery of dialogues and gestural expressions of these two sets of actors. This could be possible due to his creative understanding of the characters. The concept that Pirandello puts forward that reality changes with time is a lesson by itself for the viewers and thereby they too become members of the troupe as if.

A very tight scripting has helped in maintaining the rhythm of the play which has been very well supported by Sudip Sanyal’s lights and Anindya Nandi’s music. Perfect execution of the director’s ideas was excellently done by each and every actor for whom their individual roles were more or less challenging. Ashim Roychoudhury’s father, or Monalisa Chatterjee’s step daughter excelled in their verbose acting. On the other hand, Tamali Choudhury’s mother or Korak Samanta’s son were as sensual in their succinct performances. Abhra Mukherjee or Shouvik Majumdar or Chandan Ghosh were immaculate in their portrayal as were the others.

Once again kudos to Sansriti for such a truthful presentation of Pirandello’s concept of Truth.