Natrang’s International Talk Show on Theatre featured Shri Chandradasan, an eminent theatre director today on Natrang’s Facebook Page where he shared his ‘Vision of Theatre’ with the global audience and also answered their questions tastefully. Director Natrang, Padmashri Balwant Thakur stated that this distinct endeavour of Natrang is doing tremendous work in promotion and awareness of theatre during these tough times and enables people to get a lifetime opportunity to listen to the ‘Vision of Theatre’ the stalwarts of the field at a single platform.
Introducing Mr. Chandradasan, Natrang’s actor Pankush Verma informed that Chandradasan, founder and artistic director of Lokadharmi Centre for Theatre Kochi, is a designer, director, dramaturge, actor, writer and translator. His productions include adaptations of the Classics (Western and Indian), Shakespeare, contemporary plays, improvised and devised productions, poetry and short story performances, comedies, and children’s plays. He has designed and directed more than 50 plays in Malayalam, Kannada, Finnish, Hindi, Lithuanian, Tamil, Sanskrit, and English which includes 10 plays for children. His plays have been performed internationally at the prestigious festivals like, The Festival of Ancient Greek drama in Greece, Anima Mundi - the International Arts Festival in Lithuania and many National and International Festivals in India including Bharat Rang Mahotsava, International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) and more. With his body of work Chandradasan has visited the United States of America, Finland, Lithuania, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Greece to direct plays, conduct workshops, participate in seminars, conduct research, and perform in Festivals. For his commendable work, he has been conferred the following awards, Mahindra Excellence in Theatre award (META) for best play. The Kerala State Sangeetha Nataka Academy Award. Fulbright- Nehru Fellowship for Professional and academic Excellence 2014, from United States India education Foundation (USIEF) for six month research in America. The best playwright award by Kerala Bala Sahitya. The Senior Fellowship in theatre from the department of Culture, Govt of India. His major productions include Kariya Devara Huduki (Kannada adaptation of the Malayalam play Karutha Daivathe Thedi by G. Sankara Pillai; for NSD Bangalore) Arkediyadalli Puck (in Kannada for Rangayana Mysore, written by Ramanatha S), Shakuntalam – Oru Nayattu Kadha (Kalidasa) Medea (Euripides), Karnnabharam (The anguish of Karna, by Bhasa), Poranadi (the outcaste by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar), Lankalakshmi (by C.N. Sreekantan Nair), Kaali Naadakam (Sajitha Madathil), Draupadi, Charandas Chor etc.
In a very vibrant interaction, Chandradasan discussed about his style and vision of theatre, for him, theatre narrates stories from time immemorial, and we tell it in harmonization with our purpose of doing theatre. To achieve this task, we have content to be narrated, we have the power of the actor to enliven it and the imagination of the audience to believe in it. So, we can create everything with these virtues. He has eternal concerns with his content and context as these are very important for him. He asserts that, ‘I like doing classics but I do not retell it, I re-read and re-interpret it in the context of the contemporary times in the flavour of the ethos of my land because the content should speak about the conflicts, anxiety of my age’. Thus, While working on classics, he takes the same text but in a different context. Most of his productions are about ordinary, powerless, downtrodden people, he has also done a lot of plays on women and it is a very common theme of his productions. While mounting a production, Chandradasan has a very clearly defined super-objective and his language is not just verbal, it carries different, distant or layered meanings. He also differentiated between Asian ethos and Western ethos and affirms that even while doing a play in proscenium, he prefers eastern sensibility to break the fourth wall just like our traditional theatre to create a performance milieu that contains regional ethos. And his theatre is a synthesis of western and Indian aesthetics. For him, form, content and understanding of the audience should speak in synchronization. Actors are not mere characters on stage of him, they do a lot which is possible in our traditional forms and these transitions and transformations are wonderful. He suggests that just like other designs in a production, there is acting design also which is required to be explored. Chandradasan is more into intimate/inclusive theatre where the audience also becomes a part of the design. Answering questions, he mentions that social issues are mostly political issues, other than party politics. He also shared a refreshing experience of working with children as they test your creativity with their innocence.
Those who are coordinating this mega online event include Anil Tickoo, Neeraj Kant, Suresh Kumar, Sanjeev Gupta, Vikrant Sharma, Sumeet Sharma, Aarushi Thakur Rana, Mohd. Yaseen, Gauri Thakur, Rahul Singh.