The Plot Thickens
With Time, plots are also undergoing a sea change, Playwrights and audience have become bolder in what they are ready to accept, says Puja Goyal.
The plot of any play and the style, in which it is presented, has an historical significance. More often than not, the framework of any story will remain the same. The way the story has been presented to the audience becomes the plays theme.
Politics, satire, relationships, romance, drama, comedies, history, musicals or innovative monologues, are some areas covered by theatre in the plot towards staging a play. Be it in the past or the present age, we are talking about the same elements but in a different format.
For example, 'Romeo and Juliet' or any play written by Shakespeare were innovative and reflective of the time he wrote them in. Other playwrights have innovated the original by keeping the storyline intact while dabbling with humor. The costumes have been changed to modern day clothing, and the language has been translated to a user-friendly medium.
'Footsbarn', is a traveling life-style form of theatre is presently touring India with their play "Perchance to Dream". It is a play that has created a theme of its own by combining various Shakespearean plays into one script. The result is a combination of four plays, multi-lingual dialogues (adapting the language of the place they staged in) and their own songs. Innovation and alterations has become key to any theatre production.
The audience today is more educated, adept and accepting of change. They are open to different treatment of stories and it adds a lot to how the theme in any play is approached.
Previously, plays on subjects like revolution, sati, abortion etc, would be dealt with diplomatically, while the actors would be a tad bit sensitive to how the audience will receive it. The audience was given such subjects in a sugarcoated format.
But today, theatre has become proactive and direct.
Vaginal monologues a play written by Eve Ensler, has changed the way the audience perceives theatre. Even Feminists were taken back with its naked descriptions of the vagina; a word that was mentioned more than hundred times in various forms as the play progressed. It was a term that would have been taboo if spoken off on stage a few years back. The play resulted in a mix response, while some critics said that the play reduced a woman to being only a vagina, others said that it was very liberating talking about their bodies. Whether the play was well written and adequate or not, no one knows, but they do know that it made a major part of the audience react and talk.
So are we at a point where the theme of any play is decided upon about how the audience is going to react?? Is it about creating scandal and talk, so that they get noticed? Or is it that, we are being/trying to be liberated in using these words by creating these themes.
'Adolf' a monologue by Pip Utton, is one of the longest running monologues of our times. He furnishes his audience with an acute anatomy of fascism; its ideological justifications; its poisoned utopias. They are in the presence of an utterly compelling idealist, and are helplessly drawn in to his warped logic. This play was staged ticket less at Guru Nanak Bhavan and is one of the most brilliant plays of this generation.
Adolf Hitler as a subject would have been completely condemned if it was given the same treatment a few years ago.
The point here is that the crux of the matter is the same. What is different is the treatment given to the underlining plot to the same theme. This is of historical significance on the development and being creative with ideologies.
Local theatre has been somewhat diplomatic in its approach to theatre. A play that was written on Gandhi reflected on the concept of fascism and tried to justify Nathuram Godse. This raised a lot of questions on how tolerant we are as a nation to the freedom of speech.
While local plays consist of family drama, humor and is reminiscent of folk influence, there is a revolution waiting to happen.
The plot of any play and the style, in which it is presented, has an historical significance. More often than not, the framework of any story will remain the same. The way the story has been presented to the audience becomes the plays theme.
Politics, satire, relationships, romance, drama, comedies, history, musicals or innovative monologues, are some areas covered by theatre in the plot towards staging a play. Be it in the past or the present age, we are talking about the same elements but in a different format.
For example, 'Romeo and Juliet' or any play written by Shakespeare were innovative and reflective of the time he wrote them in. Other playwrights have innovated the original by keeping the storyline intact while dabbling with humor. The costumes have been changed to modern day clothing, and the language has been translated to a user-friendly medium.
'Footsbarn', is a traveling life-style form of theatre is presently touring India with their play "Perchance to Dream". It is a play that has created a theme of its own by combining various Shakespearean plays into one script. The result is a combination of four plays, multi-lingual dialogues (adapting the language of the place they staged in) and their own songs. Innovation and alterations has become key to any theatre production.
The audience today is more educated, adept and accepting of change. They are open to different treatment of stories and it adds a lot to how the theme in any play is approached.
Previously, plays on subjects like revolution, sati, abortion etc, would be dealt with diplomatically, while the actors would be a tad bit sensitive to how the audience will receive it. The audience was given such subjects in a sugarcoated format.
But today, theatre has become proactive and direct.
Vaginal monologues a play written by Eve Ensler, has changed the way the audience perceives theatre. Even Feminists were taken back with its naked descriptions of the vagina; a word that was mentioned more than hundred times in various forms as the play progressed. It was a term that would have been taboo if spoken off on stage a few years back. The play resulted in a mix response, while some critics said that the play reduced a woman to being only a vagina, others said that it was very liberating talking about their bodies. Whether the play was well written and adequate or not, no one knows, but they do know that it made a major part of the audience react and talk.
So are we at a point where the theme of any play is decided upon about how the audience is going to react?? Is it about creating scandal and talk, so that they get noticed? Or is it that, we are being/trying to be liberated in using these words by creating these themes.
'Adolf' a monologue by Pip Utton, is one of the longest running monologues of our times. He furnishes his audience with an acute anatomy of fascism; its ideological justifications; its poisoned utopias. They are in the presence of an utterly compelling idealist, and are helplessly drawn in to his warped logic. This play was staged ticket less at Guru Nanak Bhavan and is one of the most brilliant plays of this generation.
Adolf Hitler as a subject would have been completely condemned if it was given the same treatment a few years ago.
The point here is that the crux of the matter is the same. What is different is the treatment given to the underlining plot to the same theme. This is of historical significance on the development and being creative with ideologies.
Local theatre has been somewhat diplomatic in its approach to theatre. A play that was written on Gandhi reflected on the concept of fascism and tried to justify Nathuram Godse. This raised a lot of questions on how tolerant we are as a nation to the freedom of speech.
While local plays consist of family drama, humor and is reminiscent of folk influence, there is a revolution waiting to happen.
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