Theatre is indeed unique. It is a make-believe world, and yet it is so true to life that it appears at times more life-like than even life itself. No wonder, one of the undisputed masters of theatrical excellence, Shakespeare, could not avoid the temptation of describing life in one of his famous most quotes though a theatrical metaphor, the seven (st)ages of life.
Do you know the etymology of the word drama? It comes from the root 'dran' which means 'to do'. The word theater, too, has an interesting genealogy. This late Middle English word descends from the Greek via Latin to Old French. The original Greek 'theatoron' is a derivative of 'theasthai' which means 'behold'.
This root analysis proves how embedded in the very concept is a show and its spectators. A theatrical performance hence is a symbiosis between the author, the director, the actors and the spectators. Any actor/actress worth his/her salt wants to perform in the theatre, given the live challenge and the immense satisfaction, just not feasible and possible in the multi-shot edited takes during the film production.
Well, the theatre has hugely metamorphosed from its religious roots as in the Greek period . In comparison with Shakespeare's 'Globe', theatres today are real hi-fi. Sure, the poetry and universality as in the Shakespearean and the Greek theatres respectively has not faded or dimmed, but is much more enhanced now. Being hence a theatre-wallah, a theatre person in whichever role, be it the producer, the director, the author or the actors, literally flows in the very blood stream of many people.
'Doing theatre' often starts around school days, and never leaves the possessed soul. People are happy even to be the backstage support. Anyways, 'maza' Maharashtra is 'maha' famous for its theatre obsession, be it the folk or the musical version.
Such telling the truth about life is so central to the theatre experience that even the theatre criticism is as old as Bharata and Aristotle! No wonder, even the performing arts that share the stage with plays in the theatre have an element of drama inbuilt in them!
Well, so intensely and so deeply does theatre depict human life, its foibles and frailties that in the real world operations happen in a theatre, and so do wars!
In brief, whatever the type of theatre, the realistic, the absurd, the symbolic, and so on, human heart, and its conflicts with self and the world, pulsates in the orbit of this make-believe proscenium arch with its own version of "suspend, ye, disbelief who entereth here". Long Live Theatre! Happy World Theatre Day!
Pratima@ "There is theatre in life, obviously, and there is life in theatre," says Kaufmann.
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