Festival of Contemporary Puppet Theatre , Delhi, 23-27 March 1998
Ann Shrosbree and Bill Hamblett of Small World Theatre (SWT) were in India during March planning a future project with working children in the slums of Delhi and giving a presentation at a conference in Rajasthan entitled ' Towards a Cultural Ecology ". During their 10 days in Rajasthan they had a concentrated experience of Rajasthani folk culture, music, theatre, dance and of course, puppetry. Attending 2 or 3 performances a day and discussions about different aspects of folk culture and how these traditions stay alive without ossifying, was extraordinary and deserves an article to itself.
While in Rajasthan Ann and Bill were invited to participate in an " All India Puppetry Seminar" which was happening in Delhi. This was the fifth in a series of events organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi during the last five years. The previous four had focused on each of the traditional Indian puppetry forms i.e. marionette, shadow, glove and rod. Festivals and workshops had been held in Udiapur, ( Rajasthan ), Guwahati, (Assam), Dharmasthala, (Karnataka) and Diamond Harbour, (West Bengal) With a second event in Udiapur last year where traditional marionette puppeteers from all over India participated in a workshop seeking to create animal and bird puppets "with a view to enlarging the repertoire of traditional puppetry without making any artistic compromise". The motivation for these initiatives had come from a desire within the Akademi to acknowledge, understand, preserve and promote the rich and diverse puppet traditions of India and to bring puppeteers from this vast country together.
This final event in the series was a festival of contemporary puppet theatre with performances in the Sri Ram theatre every evening and discussions during the day. Facing a morning of intense discussions about the previous evening's show, fielding questions and batting off criticisms from the assembled academics and fellow performers was an uncomfortable position to be in for some directors who had presented fresh or debut performances at the conference and had had to cope with more than a few technical problems with the sound and lighting . There were also presentations and papers by people using puppetry in development projects and in film and television, and discussions about the relative values of traditional versus contemporary puppetry.
How on earth did SWT find itself discussing the the soul of the puppet ? This subject was dealt with in a paper delivered by Shri Hiren Bhattacharya on the Wednesday. It was an uncommon joy for two western puppeteers to discuss these matters which uncovered a deep mystical resonance which seemed quite familiar to the Indian puppeteers. Obviously when puppeteers talk of the soul of the puppet they are really baring their own.
How did SWT get talked into giving a practical demonstration of shadow puppetry "Welsh style"? Especially in the land of shadow puppetryÕs birth with no puppets prepared and only a few hours to find materials, a screen, a cast of shadow puppets and a story with enough content to engage this august gathering. In the spirit of singing for your supper, or putting your artistry where your mouth is, SWT agreed. After the Tuesday evening performance we sat in our tiny, hot, hotel room drawing, cutting and assembling 10 shadow puppets trying to make sure there were enough examples of moving parts and mechanisms to be of interest to the impressive array of shadow puppeteers who were at the seminar. SWT did not get much sleep but fiddling with strings and pins over breakfast had the puppets mostly completed. The presentation consisted of Ann and Bill enthusiastically talking about their work in commercial puppetry as well their use of puppetry and theatre as tools for development both internationally and in Britain. This was followed by the demonstration which was described as "Impressions of a journey to Rajasthan ". This seemed to go down well despite the " Smog cloud that is Delhi" puppet and the "Scooter rickshaw that has lost it's way". Of course Rajasthan lends itself to beautiful images of colourfully dressed people, peacocks, sacred cows, goats, camels etc. so there was no shortage of inspiration. The Indian puppeteers were very kind about such a rush job and seemed to enjoy the improvisation and humour of the piece.
As the seminar was an all Indian puppetry event we felt very honoured to have been asked to present our work at such short notice. The organisers had provided the opportunity to see the best of contemporary Indian puppetry. What follows is a condensed look at the performances.
Monday "Ajab Desh" , dir. Suresh Dutta, Calcutta Puppet Theatre. This was the "first night" of a new piece directed by Suresh Dutta who trained in Russia with Obraztsov and is one of IndiaÕs most respected contemporary puppet drama directors. Suresh had a troupe of 24 performers using large bunraku style figures, well crafted and on the whole well manipulated particularly in the crowd scenes. The show seemed a bit restrained by itÕs voice and music sound track which was vulnerable to a few of the technical glitches that dogged the first 3 days of the seminar until a new P.A. system came to the rescue. ( It may be a prejudice of SWT but taped vocal soundtracks do seem to create more problems than they solve.) The story, written by P.C.Chunder, of a conflict between two communities which is resolved through the friendship of two children, has universal resonances.
Tuesday Jalsa, Khur Kal, Mask, Nartan, Ring Master, etc. dir.Swapna Sen, The Puppets, Calcutta. A series of shadow puppet showlets with a company of 11. The pieces went down well with the audience and the Natran dance was very successful. It was a solo shadow puppet synchronised with a jazz and Indian classical music fusion.
ÕKaaliaÕ dir. Mansinh Zala Darparna Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmenabad . This was an experimental piece with a combination of shadow puppets, rod puppets and a dancer using the martial art of Kalaripayattu to become a cobra. The production was an interesting start in the exploration of cross discipline work. It largely failed to set the stage alight because it is difficult to marry different disciplines and scales cohesively.
Wednesday "Ektarey Ki Aanikh", dir. Milan Yadav, followed by Awwantibai", dir.Pradeep Nath , Mayur Puppet Theatre, Lucknow. Both these presentations were staged in the same booth type set and were exclusively rod puppets productions which dealt with historical themes. This may have effected the slightly wooden style of delivery as performances were drawn directly from and relied heavily on the written texts. Nonetheless the content was clearly inspiring to the adult members of the audience and retained their interest. The second show which was about a British Raj incident in Lucknow was performed in the same style with the dramatic action mostly represented by noises offstage. The question is whether puppetry is the best medium for delivering such long, inactive speeches.
Krishna Leela ,dir. Ishwariya Prakash Bhati, Lok Kala Mandal, Udiapur This large performing puppet troupe of 16 puppeteers is based at a puppet and folk arts museum in Rajasthan. They use large rod puppets to tell a series of stories of Krishna. This is not as traditional as it sounds as the puppet tradition in Rajasthan uses a particular form of marionette to portray scenes and incidents from the courts of the Maharajahs rather than the Ramayana or Mahabarata as in the rest of India. This production had good manipulation and lighting and was skilfully performed.
Thursday "A Bowlful of Pearls" ,dir.Varun Narain, Puppetry Incorporated, Delhi Story telling and puppetry in English inspired by Swan Lake and set in an Indian context. An interesting adaptation with a storyteller / puppeteer exploring sexual identity using very basic puppets and the movements of the Odissi dancer. This was a bold move which did not quite come off.
The Well and Balance Sheet dir. Ratnamala Nori , Nori Art and Puppetry Centre, Hyderabad , These two shows were lively productions performed to vocal tapes. The technical glitches were now ironed out of the venue's system .The Well was a modern parable about religious tolerance performed in English. It used glove puppets and was simple, clear and effective. "The Balance Sheet", about the pitfalls of the dowry system, also ran to taped dialogue which seemed a wasted opportunity. Especially as the subject is controversial and audience participation could have created a lively dialogue which would get people thinking. At one point it appeared that the play was causing great offence to the departing crowd but it turned out the play was performed in a local Punjabi dialect which the mainly Hindi speaking audience could not understand.
Friday "Taming of the Wild" dir. Sudip Gupta The Dolls Theatre , Calcutta. A series of well manipulated, partly black light, scenes, with interesting music and no dialogue. The giant white peacock with three manipulators was particularly memorable and the piece had a cohesive sense of theatricality.
Images of Truth dir. Dadi Pudumjee, Ishara Puppet Theatre , Delhi. Dadi Pudumjee is clearly a puppeteer and director who understands the language of theatre. He was able to combine dance , movement, music, imagery and puppetry to portray the life of Mahatma Ghandi , without losing the form of the piece as a whole. One sequence performed by Dadi was particularly exquisite and profound. A small wooden puppet of a man without a face sheds his western office worker suit , dons GhandiÕs familiar white cloths and acquires a face. The face is a wooden mask with the features of Ghandi. It was breathtaking and beautifully manipulated. Unfortunately we had to leave just before the end of the show to catch a train to see the Dalai Llama, but that's another story.
SWT enjoyed being part of this whole seminar which placed such importance on the medium of puppetry. The concerns raised in discussions and the depth of detail of those discussions enriched and validated the profession. Coming from such an ancient and powerful tradition contemporary Indian puppetry is still finding a new language. The efforts of the Sangeet Natak Akademi in the " Promotion and Preservation of Puppetry " and their commitment to " providing financial support to puppeteers and puppet groups on a sustained basis" provides an enviable example from which the British Arts Councils could learn.
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