Theatre!

 The theatre! Whether the art itself or the hall where mostly that art is practised (except when it comes to the street plays with an obvious, rather propagandist, message) is always charm, mystery and pleasure, as life literally comes alive in these 'walls'!  When one refers to a film or a cinema hall, life is the game of camera-n- pictures. It hence lacks the immediacy of a theatre performance. 

Both the artists and the audience literally live life in a theatre. The very etymology of the word would reveal that fact. The term comes from the Greek root which means to behold. That is what the theatre does for us. It helps us 'behold' life in an immersive way. 

Such is this 'behold'en aspect of theatre that across the world and across different dramatic traditions, we have a 'play within a play' tradition, be it "Swapnavasavdattam" or "Hamlet".  Shakespeare loved this 'all the world' as 'stage' (with different layers of meanings of this term) metaphor hugely and employed it often in his theatre! After all, he was a theatre person every which way, as an author, as an actor, as the owner!

The theatre is special because it is individual excellence (be it as an author, a director, an actor, the musicians, as in the case especially of a 'sangeet natak' or an opera,  the set designer, not to forget  the spectator as only s/he truly completes the meaning of the whole) encased in a performative gestalt.

No wonder, despite so many other modes of distraction, the theatre lives on, especially relevant in current lives where most all wear masks, right? No wonder, whether the British spell it with a word final 're' or Americans with an 'er', this perfomance which is a combo of literary and performative arts is the most appealing. 

Well, if as a literature student, one tends to stress the text, any single folk theatre performance can wake one up from that slumber. Often a director, an actor and the aware audience can weave an entirely different world beyond the words of the text, right? Every performance brings the text alive in a unique way. Hence, the theatre is real appealing. Long live the theatre!

Pratima@The ITI deserves our yearlong thanks for initiating this day, and especially for the special messages from stalwarts such Jean Cocteau to Jon Fosse.