Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 5: Minimal spoken words, body movements and a very few objects and mask playing, marked the production style of the play ‘Day of Victory’, that was performed by group ‘Push & Pull’, New Delhi, at the studio of Natrang Theater Group, as part of Sunday Theatre Series, here today.
An example of the avant garde experimentation to explore new idiom in theatre, today’s premier show of performance which was remarkable for its strong visual languages, exploring the limits of physicality and ensemble work, came out as a inspiring experience for the local theatre fraternity.
Inspired by the graphic novel ‘The Odyssey’, by Roy Thomas and Greg Tocchini, the play was been designed by Tushar Pandey (NSD alumni), Shubham (FTII, Pune alumni), both accomplished actors and Rahul Rai. According to the team, the whole show devised with the actors and was an eclectic effort that for its formal design took elements from ‘Comedia Dell Arte (French) and Grotesque, clowning and masked Performances.
Directed by Tushar Pandey, the concept of ‘Day of Victory’ is to find a physical vocabulary to invoke the imagination in the audience to experience epic in everyone’s life. Using the tools of physical storytelling, masked performance, clowning, physical puppetry, the idea is to let the audience fully participate and experience the production. The play runs between the present day ‘Unay’, (who works hard in his life without finding any comfort or desires to go further) and the mind of Unay (Jagdish), who stands up against everything that stops him to become what he desires. His imagined adventures offer violent release until the border between fantasy and reality begins to blur. The play experiences intense rush of images and tangled memories, revelations and lost detached connections, where we see Odysseus of today finding his real journey through hardships and troubles of the city life, to find where he really belongs. The story is seen in fragments, in episodic styles though the eyes of a lonely man, who is in Unay or Unay is in him.
Tushar Pandey (NSD alumni) and Shubham (FTII, Pune alumni) both accomplished actors transported the minds of the audience to a different world with their skilled acting. The Lights creatively designed by Rahul Rai were also very complementary to the performance. Asheish Nijhawan, another alumni of NSD designed and appropriately executed the sound, which was an important component of the play. Costumes were designed by Priyanka Jain and Masks by Arun Mallick.
Earlier Balwant Thakur introduced the team, informed that Tushar Pandey, an INLAKS Shivdasani International Scholar, did a two-year specialization on Lecoq’s pedagogy from London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). H has been associated with various projects in India and UK. He is the co-founder of lyrebird theatre with whom he devised, produced and performed ‘Ships Of Sand’ which premiered at prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011 with collaborators from USA, Greece, UK, Argentina, Denmark and India. He is also a visiting faculty at National School of Drama (NSD).
Balwant Thakur also assured that Natrang would continue its endeavor to introduce to Jammuites the latest innovations of theatre being evolved globally.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
