Most theatre actors and directors — aspiring, amateur or seasoned and professional — have at some time or the other toyed with the idea of doing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. A part of the curriculum in the institutes where drama is taught, Waiting for Godot is the first introduction to absurd theatre. Many might not get it in the first go.
Similar was the case with Abhinav Grover, who is an engineer by qualification, and a theatre artist by trade. Grover is now bringing his theatre production, Raamji Aayenge, which is an inter-textual adaptation of Waiting for Godot and Kishkinda Kaand, to the city. BeTaal, Mumbai will be presenting the English-Hindi devised play at the Urja festival, organised by Maharashtra Cultural Festival in the city, on Saturday evening.
“I studied theatre at The Drama School, Mumbai. There we were told that we should read Beckett’s Waiting for Godot if we wished to understand absurd theatre. When I read it, I found it boring. But I liked the idea of the play in which people are waiting and nothing seems to happen on the surface,” says Grover.
The play struck a chord and made sense to Grover when he was in Udupi, Karnataka undergoing training in Yakshagana form of theatre. “My Yakshagana theatre guru, Shree Sanjeev Suvarna, had directed a play called Lankini Moksha. In that play, Hanuman is shown to cross the ocean to bring back Sita, whereas the other vanars can’t cross the ocean and so they are left behind. While they are waiting, they discuss what they are supposed to do in Hanuman’s absence, what if their wife also goes missing, and why are they fighting someone else’s war. I found this bit with its political overtones very interesting. After processing it a bit, I found certain similarities between that and Godot, where Vladimir and Estragon are also waiting...I thought that someday if I get a chance, I will do this play.”
He returned to Mumbai after completing his training, Grover met theatre veteran Sunil Shanbag who briefed him about the residency programme of Studio Tamasha. “He said that if I (and other young theatre directors) wanted to work on a new play, they should get in touch. I wrote him a mail and then we started working on Raamji Ayenge. We wrote the first act in the residency programme and read it during the Rang Shankara festival. To write the second act, we went to Udupi,” says Grover.
Raamji Ayenge is BeTaal group’s second production and their most ambitious one yet. The play is a cross-pollination of ideas and cultures, with references from Ramayan and contemporaneous reality with smart phones and technology creeping in.
“We have two vanars — Bhonpu and Peepee — waiting for someone on the Kishkinda Parvat. This bit is from Ramayan, when Ram returns to Kishkinda Parvat after defeating and killing Bali. The crux of Godot is you are waiting for something, you desire something which is unattainable. I think that also reflects the Indian mindset — we wait for someone, a saviour perhaps, who has a cure for all our ills. That’s how I drew the parallel — two monkeys in wait of Ram-ji. I was searching for an Indian reference with a common point with Godot. I found it in our mythology,” adds Grover.
Since this is an absurdist play, Grover and his team thought there should be no explicit references to time and space. The director-actor admits that while they have minimum production values, they have played on the experimental factor. “Raamji Ayenge was challenging and ambitious for sure. As for its previous shows, some people found resonance and some didn’t. I have had people telling me, ‘There was nothing happening. This didn’t feel like a play. Yet we continued to watch it.’ I think this is the magic of Beckett’s writing. There is the question of action and inaction, of search, and that’s what we have attempted to explore,” says Grover, adding, “The play was also called Bhagua Aayenge, when it was staged in Manipal. There are overt political tones, if you wish to read it. Ultimately, as Estragon says in Waiting..., ‘You believe what you want to believe’. We have done it in good faith.”
ST Reader Service
BeTaal Mumbai’s Raamji Ayenge to be staged at Sudarshan Rangmanch, Shaniwar Peth on July 27, 7 pm
