Meta 2016 is a triumph

The opening play of the Meta Festival, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a take on the silent film of the same name made in 1920s. The German impressionistic film provided Deepan Sivaraman an opportunity to experiment with the theatre forms he had been dealing with in the past. The scenography involved elaborate special designs along with special lighting and innovative sound.

The focus on objects in the play, some found and some made, played an important part in the play. For instance the wooden house carried by Jane and the piano, in the scene before she is murdered and her body is taken away by Dr. Caligari, as one of the objects in his cabinet. Or the glass case, which Dr. Caligari carried in which there was a jungle and a lone woman in white was seen. The typewriter and the piano keys played themselves in the excellent video support. The projection of these two items came at crucial times in the play — in the final scene where Dr. Caligari burns a notebook which he discovers in the piano and which is the text of the play.

There is horror in their makeup and they play up their facial expressions to the hilt, frightening the co-actor and the audience alike. The students of Ambedkar University, where the play was held, were very good and they followed Deepan’s instructions very well in the play that took six months to evolve.

Akshay Burman and Tanya Sharma took on the role of Caligari. While Akshay was clear in his enunciation, Tanya’s speech was a little warped. Akshay was also the scriptwriter and he created a marvellous script out of a silent movie. Deepan also played the part of Alan well, who is the other man in Jane’s life. All the actors were very strong and appeared to be dedicated to the production.

After Death- The Spiritual Journey was staged at the LTG Auditorium on the second day. It is based on the ancestral beliefs of the Bhil tribes and its varying visual culture. Death is very important in the Bhil’s life. He gives vent to his grief though dance and music. In this play, one man dies in an accident and his wife, mother and family come to pay homage and perform rituals to save his life but after his death his wife gets engaged to another man. The dead man’s soul cannot rest in peace and he causes disturbances in the village and in his family. The wife is punished with water thrown on her and she eventually succumbs to the treatment and faints.

The choreography was very interesting. It was done in fast movements and involved a lot of physical stunts. The bodies of the dancers were very fit and agile, and they danced very well.

But the play failed to catch the attention of the jury, which comprised Sushma Seth, Kunal Basu, M.K. Raina, Tanushree Shankar and Kusum Haider. The jury for selection of the plays for the festival must be congratulated on their choice of plays, which were all very good.

Main Huun Yusuf Aur Yeh Hai Mera Bhai was staged under Mohit Takalkar’s direction. It was in deep competition with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but won the best Meta play award.

These awards were presented by members of both the juries at a grand reception held by Teamwork Films, the official event management company for the festival. Mohit Takalkar was awarded the best director of Meta.

The play is a translation of the Palestinian play of the same name and is done by Salima Raza. Main Huun Yusuf Aur Yeh Hai Mera Bhai is a powerful poetic exploration of different forms of love. There is love between Ali and Yusuf and there is love between Ali and Nada and there is love between mother and son.

The play is set in January 1948 when the British depart from Palestine and the UN is voting on who will control what part of the land. It appears that the Jews of Israel get the maximum part of what was once Palestine, leading to war in the region as the villagers are scattered and become refugees. The expulsion of millions of people from Palestine was a devastating and traumatic event. It is a scab that is continuously picked at and never heals. The Musims of Palestine had lost whatever they had. They feel helpless in the face of the overpowering degrading treatment.

The play opens with an elderly Yusuf coming in to complain to his sister-in-law Nada about the boys teasing him outside. Then we come across the younger Yusuf, played excellently by Ajit Singh Palawat (he received a special mention by the jury for his performance). Yusuf is an odd character and his childlike behaviour in all circumstances leads people to call him mad. It is because of him that Ali is not allowed to marry Nada by her father.

The lighting was excellent in this production and was done by Pradeep Vaidya, who won the award for best lighting. This was Vaidya’s third Meta award for lighting. The sound design for the play was also very good with old Nada played by Ipshita Chakraborty. It was a very moving piece of theatre.

Agnes of God was written by John Pielmear and directed by Kaizaad Kotwal and produced by him and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal of the Vagina Monologues fame. The play has three characters. One is Mother Superior, played by Mahabanoo, a psychiatrist played by Anahita Uberoi and of course Agnes herself, the poor wretched nun who believes that it was God who impregnated her. After many sessions with Anahita, Agnes, played by Avanti Nagpal, confesses to an ugly man present in her room on the day that she fell ill. She first denies the baby at all costs, and it’s only when she is hypnotised that she confesses to have killed the baby by strangulating her with her birth cord.

Avanti as the nun was very good and her singing was sublime. Anahita was all right but her dialogue was sing-song most of the time. Mahabanoo appeared unsure of her lines.

But the content of the play in which the timeless issues of faith and science, reason and miracles, set against a story of a new nun accused of murdering her own child, leads to a good debate.

Ultimately the play is about the fragility of the human being when compared to tumultuous forces of nature and the universe.