Reason vs. faith-Sajitha Madathil

To observe the 400th anniversary of the year Galileo first turned his telescope upward and changed the way human beings thought of their place in the cosmos, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat (KSSP) staged the play ‘Galileo' in Thiruvananthapuram recently.

The play is a Malayalam adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play ‘The Life of Galileo.' In this play Brecht explores the conflict between Galileo, the Church and scientists who refuse to abandon Aristotelian astronomy. The play also takes a bold look at the costs and implications of scientific discovery and how the repercussions of a fundamental paradigm shift rocks the very foundations of our belief systems. KSSP's selection of this play is relevant because the great religion-science clash of 1633 has in some form survived right up to our times too.

Attention to detail

With close attention being paid to stage sets, costumes, songs, sound effects, lights…, the stage was set for the tale to be told by actors (volunteers of KSSP who turned artistes).

This adapted version of the German dramatist's well-known work is directed by renowned theatre person P. Gangadharan, with the support of the KSSP team.

The play has been scheduled to cover 183 stages all over Kerala. More than 30 artistes who have been divided into three troupes are creatively involved in this month-long project, which ends on December 14.

In all sense ‘Galileo' is a free-hand adaptation. The play starts in the context of a contemporary visual media talk show. Then slowly the play travels from the discussion on whether human beings landed on the moon or not, to the terrain of Galileo's life. In this, the play mainly explores the conflict between reason and faith.

However, the play erases the human conflicts that may have deepened the text and granted different shades to it. A character like Galileo's daughter Virginia, which has been extolled by critics and which has been considered to be a key role that adds to the conflict of Church and family in the text, has been completely pushed out from the KSSP's Galileo (It may be remembered here that KSSP pioneered the all-women Kala Jatha on gender issues). This character certainly held the potential to shape the adapted text more into one in the contemporary milieu.

In the original text, Brecht uses a street singer's song to demonstrate how Galileo's ideas were trickling down to the peasantry. It is exciting the way the play portrays the influence of Galileo's thoughts among ordinary people. Visualisation of a carnival through the use of a traditional story-telling form of Kerala was intelligent in two ways — firstly, it touches you deeply to see how scientific thoughts can be interpreted for the revolution of humankind; secondly, how interestingly we are shifting to folk forms while we visualise ordinary human beings. Mani who played Galileo excelled in his role.


One may take exception to the way the songs are added in between the scenes and the traits of the old Kalajatha chorus are retained to add to the power of the text. We are still moving around the periphery of Brechtian Alienation Theory, which could have easily gone along with the performance text itself.

Anyway creating a new performance language for a Brechtian play is not obviously the concern of KSSP. Those few false notes aside, this is a magnificent production in every sense.

Stage for thought- Sajitha Madathil

Last year, the first International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) organised by the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi set the stage on fire and carved a name for itself as the premier theatre event in the State. From December 20 till December 29, theatre buffs are once again in for a treat as the second edition of the ITFoK takes centre stage in Thrissur.

Four categories of plays will be staged at this year's festival. There will be an African and Asian Panorama along with the Malayalam Panorama of nationally acclaimed works. In the early part of the evening, the stage will be set apart for plays by theatre groups from across Kerala. Acclaimed theatre person Abhilash Pillai will curate the festival on behalf of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. To make the festival more rooted in our culture, included in the programme are folk and classical theatre forms of Kerala too.

Sidi Goma

One of the things to look out for at this year's fete is the Sidi Goma tribe's maiden performance in Kerala. The Sidi Goma are a tribe of East African origin, who came to India eight centuries ago and made Gujarat their home. They follow Sufism and they have a exceptionally rich musical tradition, which has flourished for centuries.

The African Panorama throws up some interesting questions on the similarity (if any) between African theatre and Indian theatre. In fact, there is quite a lot of interesting similarities in the theatre practices in India and in Africa. Both practices have deep-rooted folk and ritual traditions. In the histories of both, there is still the struggle between the new and the old forms; at times one dominates while the other suffers. It is certainly enlightening to watch out for these nuances in Afro-Asian performances after 50 years of our own effort to shape a national theatre.

African Panorama

Consequently, the African Panorama has four exciting plays that will highlight the struggle between the primitive and the modern.

‘Every Year Every Day I am Walking' is from Cape Town, South Africa, and has been directed by Fleishmann, who is well known for his emphasis of the visceral and visual elements of performance. With a series of potent images, he visualises a little girl and her mother fleeing from the violence and despair of their homeland.

Another well-known director Keith Pearson's ‘Githaa' deals with Kenyan life in the form of a folk tale. The myths and rural realities have been portrayed through the story of a young woman. A series of stories that connect the two realities, through song, dance and dialogue, constitute the play.

Christopher Weare who directed ‘MacBeki,' another play in the Panorama, draws inspiration from ‘Macbeth,' Shakespeare's drama about ambition, power, deceit and greed. ‘Macbeki' exists independently of ‘Macbeth' and sparkles with the satirical genius of veteran artiste Pieter-Dirk Uys. It will be quite an experience for the Malayali audience, many of whom may be familiar with the nuances of African politics. ‘Sauti Kimya' (Sounds in Silence) is going to be another interesting production by Pearson. It moves around the Taita community's concept of ‘fighi' – a place where all conflict is put on hold, a place of resolution and reflection.

I am sure this layered musical production will give a sense of theatre searching for its roots through contemporary social conflicts. This intelligently curated section of plays from Africa will provide the audience glimpses of both the tribal culture and the contemporary social conflicts of African life. It may even be motivating for theatre enthusiasts in Kerala to understand how the Africans use their their traditional forms to communicate about their contemporary crisis to the outside world.

The Asian Panorama, showcases two plays from Pakistan. ‘The Hotel Mohenjodaro' (1968) is based on the story by renowned Urdu short story writer Ghulam Abbas. The story is told as an account of a television journalist, reporting from a troubled tribal area in Pakistan that was the scene of a devastating suicide bomb attack. This play directed by Shahid Nadeem is dedicated to the victims of terrorism in Pakistan.

‘Burqvaganza' is the other play from Pakistan. It's a story of love in the times of jihad. Through the simple narrative of two young lovers, it tells of how they are determined to defy the hypocritical values of an ultra-conservative society.

The Malayalam Panorama section of the festival comprises works by young male (!) directors such as Naripatta Raju, Suveeran, Deepan, Jyothish M.J., Shanker Venkiteswaran and Surjith to name a few.

The 10-day theatre festival comes to a close with ‘When We Dead Awaken,' directed by renowned theatre director Ratan Thiyam and based on Henrik Ibsen's last ever play of the same name. The festival is sure to be a delightful experience and perhaps even a thought-provoking one that may lead Malayalam theatre in a new direction.




The inauguration



The inaugural ceremony of the second ITFoK will begin with the performance of the Sidi Goma's, which promises to be an exhilarating representation of their unique African and Indian heritage. Their performance will be followed by the inaugural play ‘The Caine Mutiny Court Martial' by the Motley Theatre, Mumbai, which has been directed by theatre and film artiste Naseeruddin Shah. The play is based on Herman Wouk's dramatisation of the court-martial scene from his novel ‘The Caine Mutiny.' It is an intense drama about men, mutiny and morality. It is bound to be an interesting start for the festival.

Waiting once again for Sidi Goma! By Sajitha Madathil

Waiting for Sidi Goma!!
The ten-day Second International Afro-Asian theatre ITFoK-09 from 20th December to 29th December at Thrissur, had opened its wings with the unique African-Indian heritage of Sidi Goma performance, which brought about a fascinatingly exuberant energy and joy; indeed, a captivating, powerful and exhilarating experience for the land of Pooram!!
The main theme of the festival was African plays. The groups that came from South Africa and Kenya had performed five plays. Those theatre groups had included in them artists from different social set-ups and communities, and was a real reflection of African society. It was interesting to see the reaction of the audience, reflecting what Africans meant for them…black, huge, curly-haired…perceptions had turned upside down when they saw real Indians matching their concept about real Africans!
Black Sidis of Gujarat are a tribal Sufi community of East African origin. They came to India eight centuries ago. In Gujarat they had settled down at Bharuch village. They had been leading their silent, invisible life for centuries because factors such as they were black, from Africa, and Muslim, had kept them at lower socio-economic and educational levels. But, their life started changing from 1985 when the power of their ritual, folk performance was experienced by the society. They claimed their visibility in Indian society from their roots...from their songs, percussion and dance... the flames of which were kept with them for the last 800 years.. They had carried with them their exceptionally rich musical tradition and kept it alive and flourishing through the generations, unknown to the rest of the world.
Sidi men and women perform sacred music and dance during rituals in the shrines to Bava Gor...Most of them are musically inclined, who recognise music as a tool for becoming closer to God. Over the time, the Sidis' native African music styles, melodic and rhythmic structures, lyrics and musical instruments mingled with local influences in Gujarat to form this unique and symbolic representation of African-Indianness. These singing and dancing sessions were very community-based till they got a chance to perform at Delhi. Thankfully some of the cultural authorities identified the magic of Sidi Goma and through Western Cultural Centre, Udaipur, had redesigned the performance for the modern stage! And a new costume has been designed for exhibition of this newly identified performance!
Sidi Goma perform in a group of twelve: four lead musicians (drummers/singers) and eight dancers. Mukarbhan, Mushindo, Thaz, Thamama and Mayi mizha are the instruments used for performance. These all are identified as African instruments but they have now lost the continuity of their tradition in East Africa where they came from!
The program presented an overview of Sidi ritual performance, consisting of joyful, satirical praise dances to their Saint. Intoxicating drum patterns in rhythm support the dancers who perform with feats of liveliness and strength, gradually reaching an ecstatic climax. While the music gradually gets more rapid and excited, the dances unfold with constantly evolving individual and small-group acts of animal-gesture imitations and certain types of circle dances. Most exciting was the second part of their performance the climax of which came, with the performers breaking coconut on their heads while dancing!
Sabeer Siddi thinks that Sidi Goma performance changed their life. "In India people think of us as Africans, although we are Indians.’ These identity issues are always there. They sing their songs in Arabic, Swahili, Hindi and Gujarati...sometimes they mix all languages together. Sabeer is proud about his dance, yes!!It was really an exciting experience. The entire audience in the Regional Theatre of Thrissur was throbbing with the big drum mugarban, dancing to the powerful rhythm, howling while performers were breaking coconuts..Yes.. Sabeer, we all are waiting. Waiting once again for Sidi Goma!