Performance Analysis
Unselfed-a
devised performance piece is a theatre production presented by the Shapeshift Collective, in collaboration
with the Company Theatre, Mumbai. This work has been directed by Sujay Saple,
who is a permanent member of the company theatre Mumbai. Company theatre was
established in 1993 and it aims to “investigate the truth of human experience”
through the medium of theatre. Their recent work, UNSELFED - a very new work
directed in 2012, came alive with the collaboration between the theatre artists
and dance performers of Mumbai. It was staged at the Bharat Rang Mahotsava 2013
organized by the National School of Drama, New Delhi ,
one of the premier institutes of theatre in India
This essay will try to, as a whole, focus on
issues like:
*Trace down the formal aspects of the
performance through Indian and international performances norms etc.
*What was thought behind having only female
performers to represent the universal self?
* Regarding the protagonists in the performance, in
relation to their identities, who are these people experiencing the
disorientation of the self? What is their class, and what power structure do
they adhere to? Are they city dwellers or rural folks?
* The performance being about the universal human
self, how does one define this universal? Is there A Universal Self?
* Some of the performers are also
well-trained dancers and this performance is rhythmic movement based with
enough theatricality yet does not incorporate the usual theatrical modalities
of texts and speeches. Who choreographed these movements? who are the other
choreographers that inspire this performance ?
“I
meet you; I remember you; who are you,
you destroy me, you are so good to me!
How could hv I known that the city was made
the size of love?
How could I hv known that you were made the
size of my body?”
Lines
like these which, uttered by one of the performers in the beginning, few and far
in between, remain echoing in the hearts and minds of the viewers throughout
the performance. Unselfed comes across as a performance that
does not follow any one particular grammar of a dance or a theatre practice.
For example, most of the performers seem to know the so called
“contemporary/jazz style of dance” but one realizes that even this particular
grammar is eventually done away with. However, the movements performed is one
of the first and foremost features that makes the viewer take notice. Rather,
the hybridity of body movements emerges again and again and the highly [2]communicative
ability of the movements engages the audience to think in the directions
indicated in the plot.
The
performance chooses non-verbal, movement-based mode of communicating to the
audience. This particular aspect of presentation seems to become predominant
for myself as a spectator. The non-verbal aspect works well with the central
theme of the performance of being un-selfed. Gesticulating body movements
expressing the alienated Self of the performer/protagonist seems to be
highlighting the physical and the ethereal characteristics of the body and the
image it projects. One image from the performance comes in mind at this point,
for example, when one of the performers tries to run away from the other
performer, clearly depicting the evasive nature of the Self. We find a constant
jostling to-and-fro from the Self to being Unselfed.
The
performance revolves around five performers who range from trained dancers to
core theatre practitioners. The attempt, as it emerges clearly, is towards a
hybrid form of performance. The director/choreographer collaboration finds its
routes through the use of some specific types of objects as well. The use of a
metal detector like gate made of wood has been used as a liminal metaphor to
depict multiple transformations of the Self. This particular ‘gate’ has also
been used at the end of the performance when the entire cast passes through it
and comes out of the character(s) they had been representing and finally take a
bow in front of the spectators. They also use skeleton bones and narrate
verbally the stories about Chinese people mixing the bone powder from the
skeletons of warrior ancestors into the material to build huge gates. This,
they believed, guarded their cities from all evil, as the souls of the warriors
resided in the gates.
Other
than this gate, The play uses several objects that may
denote resemblance to the human body. Like the paper doll cut outs which seem
to be played around with fast paced music. They use
false skins/stalking to show sagging or scaling of the skin, huge-framed
reading glasses through which they look at each other, white powder to draw the
outline of a body at rest, some stethoscopes used as instruments to listen to
the body of the other, and water sprinklers from where a character drinks and
vomits into another’s mouth, lengthy polythene sheets with which two performers
bind each other as one, a huge broom which can clean away the traces of the body
outline of white powder, bandages to show the cuts on body, syringes being
shared, a lighted torch to inspect the form of the other in darkness, some
x-ray slides seen against bright light etc. Regarding the sets used on the
proscenium stage, one can say that this performance is rather very
Minimalistic. But we must mention that the Light work that happens on the stage
has been done appropriately and successfully allows the bodies in movement to
set and unsettle as structures, as and when required. Music chosen is mostly
western (violin and the cello) and does not bother much as the pace and the
rhythm of music has been edited and placed carefully according to the movements
devised.
Going
back to the formal aspects of the performance, and looking through the
director’s prism, we realize that the medium of using the female form on stage
for the representation of Self is what Felix Guattari conceives as
‘Becoming-Woman’. The point in focus is that the idiom of the female form,
which is a sensitive minority category, is used to represent the universal
nature of self in the performance. This transition from one state to another
while in contact of several other bodies is a kaleidoscopic depiction of
transgressive and liminal capacities of ‘becoming woman’. Interestingly, the
director does not talk of issues faced by women in her day to day life, since
that is not the concern this performance deals with but rather incorporates the
physical idiom of woman to larger confrontations of the human self. Guattari
says, “more precisely, the
‘becoming-woman’ serves as a point of reference, and eventually as a screen
for, other types of becoming (example: becoming-child in Schumann,
becoming-animal in Kafka, becoming-vegetable in Novailis, becoming-mineral in
Beckett).”
The
formal aspects of the performance dosnt use of any particular Indian dance
style references but instead, the evolved hybrid movement genre that is shown,
reminds us of Pina Bausch’s Tanz/Theatre which produced several works like Talk to Her, Café Muller and especially Kontakthrof that raises the performance
experience on similar themes of Self. But even on the aspects of the form and
the types of movements, we can more or less, draw references from Pina’s
movement practices. Another aspect we must highlight is that Unselfed follows an episodic plot, where
several myriad visuals seem to transcend the space in front of us. Also, as
mentioned before, the communicative medium is mostly non-verbal and thus its
conception does not adhere to any given text. Add to these the minimalistic
approach of the stage design, and we may have what we can refer as an attempt
towards the Post-Dramatic Theatre. Postdramatic theatre claims to be a form of neo-realist theatre that is vocal, dynamic and
extremely physical. This genre draws its influences from the surrealist movement, the neo-dada movement as well and some theatre directors of Germany
and the US
According
to the director, it is a collaborative work of non-stories delving on the
encounters of the sense of self. The director attempts to explore the concept
at imaginary levels regarding the experience of self collectively and in parts.
As per the thought projected by the director, the performance at some
hypothetical level also deals with the so called “[3]preciousness
of being human”. By attempting to touch upon the ‘precious’ nature of being,
the director might as well be hinting towards an unrelentingly ontological
preposition. This particular point allows us to refer towards
Ontological-Hysteric Theater (1968) which proposed a form of “total-theatre”
inculcating elements from the performative, auditory, visual, philosophy,
psychoanalysis etc. this style of theatre dabbles in involving inter and
intra-personal relationships in space. Ontological-Hysteric-Theatre was
initiated by the American playwright, Richard Foreman in 1968. His idea of
theatre was to unsettle and disorient thoughts and perceptions to propose an
alternative understanding of concepts. Clearly surrealism seems to be an
influence here too. Ontological-Hysteric-Theatre generally, in the present
times, makes use of high-end technology in the presentation of their
performances. Yet we realize that that performance, Unselfed doesn’t seem to
have all the criteria to fit the bill for OHT. Although the dimensions of OHT
are wide to understand its genre better but we must realize that Unselfed is
using solely the body as a trope, along with few objects. OHT is essentially
incorporating the hybrid improvised body movements along with digital
projections; highly elaborate, not necessarily realistic stage set designs and
also sound art technology. Unselfed on the other hand, basically emerges as an
improvised movement ensemble choreographed on musical snippets with ample
pauses and silences in between.
Before
we go forward, probably there is also a need to engage a little on the question
of the formalistic stand that this performance must take. In any performance,
set-design or the use of space, constitutes a very significant aspect. Unselfed, thoroughly, is doing away with
the necessity of sets on the stage. Such kind of methodology for mis-en-scene
was also proposed by Jerzy Grotowsky, towards the later part of his career, in
his form of work which he called as the ‘Poor-Theatre’. Therefore, there
is an evident oscillating nature of this performance from the avant-garde to
post-dramatic. The performance seems to be aiming to achieve something in
between these two genres of theatre. Possibly, Growtowsky clearly seems to be
an inspiration even though the essence of Poor Theatre has not been realized
fully in Unselfed.
On the levels of the
thematic aspects of the play, one realizes that Unselfed is centrally incorporating existential strands of thought
and characteristics. The protagonist in the play is a live, thinking, acting,
feeling human being, yet it seems to be undergoing a process of disorientation.
The viewer’s perception of the performance tends to waver from looking at
multiple protagonists to multiple selves of one protagonist’s narrative.
But
now, when we have [4]reached
a point of thematic assessment of the performance, the point in focus, the
quintessential Human-Self, has not been dealt with ample details. As is
apparent from the performance, the viewer, as a universal entity in itself, who
may or may not be from the city milieu, would be unable to identify with the
protagonists. There are no specific markers, say, even in the costumes of the
performers that may denote their signs of affiliation to a group or class or
sect etc. They comfortably wear what we can call casual cosmopolitan attire.
The protagonists are constantly defying, if there maybe any, limiting
boundaries of identity. Eventually, In the process of assessing the
performance, the performers become moving entities on a distant fourth wall.
Their style of abstraction is nonetheless closer to dance rather than theatre
resulting in forming illusionary visuals as dance presentation practices; say
even Pina’s dance works, never allowed such distinct markers to dictate their
style of narrative. But as a performance which happens to be devised post Pina,
the director or the performance as whole does not go into the depths of why and
how such disorientation occurs, which I believe are unavoidable.
Repeatedly, there
is also a psycho-philosophical angle to the performance which must probably be
expounded upon further in this essay. One such premise that seems to emege is
the concept of “Subject Position” used by philosophers like Ernesto Laclau,
Michael Foucault etc. Davies and Harre define a
subject position in the following way:
“A subject position incorporates both a conceptual
repertoire and a location for persons within the structure of rights for those
that use that repertoire. Once having taken up a particular position as one's
own, a person inevitably sees the world from the vantage point of that position
and in terms of the particular images, metaphors, storylines and concepts which
are made relevant within the particular discursive practice in which they are
positioned. At least a possibility of notional choice is inevitably involved
because there are many and contradictory discursive practices that each person
could engage in (Davies and Harre, 1990, p. 46).
The subject position must be understood in relation
to universalism and particularism. Laclau, in Universalism,
Particularism, and the Question of Identity, point out to us that the death
of the death of the Subject has already occurred. And thus the subject has been
able to emerge back to itself again. Laclau then raises an important question :
is it possible to play with the so called Universal, while being in between the
essentialist objectivism and transcendental subjectivism? One can realize that
when the play Unselfed claims to be dealing the Universal human self, it
is not taking in consideration the necessary conditions of identity, and power
of the protagonists or the power structures that they belong to. So one can
deduce, that their formulations of the subject in the performance is rather
vague and does not come out as well as it could have.
Another aspect of
the problem that arises is about who is the audience? Who is the performance
catering to? Undoubtedly, the show goes on to be repeated in at least most the
metropolitan centers of India, so the aim of the whole production also seems to
serve yet perplex and bewilder the petit bourgeoisie, without leading to much
effect in social change. Also how accessible is this art when it comes to even
the practice of documentation and research after it gets staged in a theatre
festival of one of the leading drama schools of the nations. There seemingly
lingers a sort of insecurity amongst the makers of such so called high-art,
that readily to be consumed by the city dwellers along with any other source of
entertainment in turn of market capital. But in case of performance research
and documentation, not merely going by personal experience, rigidities
especially in issues of copy-right matters need to undergo tremendous
unblocking and transformation of minds. This paradoxical situation seems to
cripple the potential art researchers and art appreciators. So, the director,
knowing or unknowingly, possibly on an inspiration spree from foreign artists,
has brought us the high art that does not reach across as well as it could
have.
So
far the essay has dealt with references primarily stating the international
theatre styles and advancements. Several times in the essay we have dealt with
the question of the formalistic aspects of the performance Unselfed. Again we
have focused on how the mise-en-scene has specifically underwent layers and
multiple forms of renovations with smaller or larger objects.
In
such light, it would not be inappropriate to claim that that the performance is
following a modernist trajectory. The Indian performing arts are now for the
past decade or so focusing on evolving new vocabularies that primarily do away
with the traditional dance patterns in costumes or body gestures. One of the
few names that come to mind is Padmini Chettur and her dance practice. She
started off as a student and a performer in Chandralekha’s Dance Company.
Chettur has a strong background in Bharatanatyam. Eventually she incorporated
Kalari, martial art form, in her practice and that led to her evolving a new
vocabulary that she can call her own. In her dance practice she emphasizes that
her productions deal with modernized movement styles and thus does not want to
call it Indian, per se. Her production called Pushed(2006) is somewhat also minimalist and episodic in form
integrated with body movements that defy traditional dance styles of
Bharatanatyam or Kalari. Pushed is also focusing her own efforts to ‘push’ the
boundaries of the dance vocabulary. Yet she maintains that her dance is not
entirely western but the very essence of innovation is much more necessary.
Works
like Chettur’s and Unselfed and several others in between, feature particularly
late in the history/histories of Indian performances.
We
also need to realize that new innovations in Indian dance and theatre have
evolved and advanced particularly late in the India
Bibliography
-
http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/events.php,
accessed on 2nd May 2013, Internet
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http://www.thecompanytheatre.net/teamnew.htm,
accessed in Feruary 2013. Internet
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usg9L9YN088,
accessed in February 2013. Internet.
-
Unselfed. By Shapeshift Collective. Dir.
Sujay Saple. Meghdoot Theatre, New
Delhi
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Guattari, Felix. Soft Subversions. Ed. Lotringer, Sylvère. Los
Angeles
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Laclau, Ernesto. “Universalism,
Particularism, and the Question of Identity”. October, Vol. 61, The Identity in Question.
(1992), pp. 83-90. Internet.
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H Katrak, Ketu. Contemporary Indian Dance: New Creative Choreography in Indian and
Diaspora. Ed. Janelle Reinelt, Brian Singleton. New York
[1] Murakami’s earlier work like Kafka On The Shore about a young boys
Oedipal quest and recent work Dance Dance Dance talks of its protagonist in
dream situations and thus leading its narrative towards illusionary and
surrealist themes.
[3] Wooster Group, started in 1975: new york
[4] In
an attempt to understand the theme better, we may as well, try to link it to
the ‘theatre of the absurd’ by Martin Esslin (1965) understanding of Albert
Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus, or Harold
Pinter’s Dumb Waiter. Theatre of the
Absurd seems to have direct connections with Dadaism and Surrealism as
well.
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