The drama gets potent

With pubs and breweries in the city making space for theatre, it’s a classic win-win situation. As the stage gets bigger for the artists, the venues are getting to add a pinch of drama to the entire experience.

‘Alcohol’ and ‘drama’ are no strangers to each other. However, a recent trend that seems to be bringing these two together — in a rather pleasant way — is an increasing number of pubs, bars and breweries opening up their spaces to the city’s theatre community. While theatre has always been a format for experimentation — not just with the scripts and characters but even with venues themselves — the mushrooming of places like Barking Deer Brewpub, BlueFrog, Brewbot and The Hive, which have dedicated spaces for performances has given the community a new platform and the audience more room to explore.

Taking this trend forward is a recent initiative by the National Centre for the Performing Arts called the NCPA Edge, which is taking productions presented at the NCPA to unconventional venues such as pubs and breweries that are quite distinct from your usual Prithvi or Tata Theatre. The move is aimed at helping the theatre community break free from the bottleneck it’s faced with due to the lack of conventional venues.

Telling us more about the initiative, NCPA’s Head of Programming, Deepa Gehlot says, “We decided to get some of our plays out of the conventional venue as a lot of alternative spaces are opening up in the city. We realised that although we can’t do large plays, which require a proper stage set-up in intimate settings, but some small plays dealing with contemporary issues can definitely reach the young audience. It is all about creating a discussion and dialogue about issues that matter in the society, these plays are interactive and will have an audience discussion after the plays are over. An intimate setting with 50-60 seats available makes it even more ideal. Reaching out to the young crowd in places like The Hive, Brewbot, Blue Frog will only set the wheels in motion for a discussion. Even the alternative space owners are realising the importance of the same and are more than willing to accommodate artistes.”

While this is helping the theatre community reaching out to newer audience, the venues are also making the most of this twist. They are doing their bit by sprucing up their happy hour offers and bringing something new to the table that is more innovative than your usual “buy one get one”. Elaborating on that, Barking Deer Brewpub’s Vivek Kukreja says, “We came up with this idea after Jameson — an Irish Whiskey brand — that came to us with a proposal for a dedicated lounge for performance. While the crowd that comes to our place is mostly composed of people coming out for a drink after work or hanging out with friends, this has really given them something new to explore. There are regularly conducted third-party events in the lounge, which range from theatre, storytelling, comedy to even poetry. The response too has been great. The crowds are enjoying it as they are getting to experience more than just the menu.”

Even though the lion’s share of stage events still look at conventional venues, especially because of the setting and the distinct crowd that they pull, for certain theatre artists such as Satchit Puranik, performing a play in an unconventional venue certainly adds zing to the production. In fact, he says that for his upcoming play Loitering, which deals with advocating openness in public spaces for all denominations, there couldn’t be a better place than a pub or a brewery to stage it. He says, “My play is inspired by the book Why Loiter — so the very crux of the idea is that public spaces should be open to all parts of the community irrespective of any denomination. Exploring unconventional venues actually fits in very well with the concept itself. Another example is a performance that I once saw, which was about cross-dressers. Now that again is something that fits in very well with the bar or pub atmosphere.”

However, while it might seem that by going to newer, unconventional venues, the performances compromising on the quiet ambiance, Deepa adds that there are spaces in the city that are taking care of this by finding middle ground. She says, “The idea remains the same as what you would expect from, a conventional venue. And just like a dance performance or a music concert, the patrons will have to pay the cover charge and that will also include the cost of the tickets. We are even looking at set-ups like art galleries and university stages but that is still at a very nascent stage.”

Divya Jagdale, who’s one-person act The Way I See It is also a part of NCPA’s Edge initiative, believes that this trend could be a game changer. “Even today there are only very few conventional venues in the city for plays. On the other hand, the number of plays being created has really exploded. In such a case getting dates and slots from popular venues becomes really hard for smaller productions,” she says. Previously, Divya has done a production titled Blank Page that was performed in unconventional venues mostly. “We think that there is only a certain kind of audience that enjoys theatre, but that’s a myth. People are always looking for something new and interesting. Initially, some of these spaces were quite skeptical about such events and they’d say, ‘bar mein poetry kaun sunega’. But if you look at the response, it is fantastic.” She points out that it’s necessary to keep things moving. “It should not be a one-off thing. If there are frequent performances across several such venues, I think this would pull in a much larger crowd to the conventional theatre audience,” Divya says.

For actors, it’s a different beast to tame altogether. Manav Kaul says, “I think it is very interesting to perform in unconventional venues. In a normal venue like a Prithvi or an NCPA the audience is seasoned and they come in and stay quiet till the end of the play. But in a venue like a bar you have the chance to engage your audience more. But it also depends on how you react and what kind of a play you are putting up. If it is a serious play, then it is a challenge, where you have to realise that you are in a pub and decide how you are going to adapt to the situation. I have done a few plays in such venues and even now we are putting up a play called The Park at The Hive. As an actor I find it very interesting.”