Indigenous art forms in urban theatre

Professor Syed Jamil Ahmed

Jamil set the ball rolling for this goal from the 1980s. Along the way he brought about a dynamic change in the set and light designs of our theatre and initiated several workshops with different troupes to promote quality theatre. In plays directed by him, such as Chaka (a Dhaka Theatre production), Bishad Shindhu (a Dhaka Padatik production), Kamala Ranir Sagardighi and Behular Bhashan (two productions of the Theatre and Music Department, University of Dhaka), viewers got the essence of the indigenous style of narration on urban stage. Syed Jamil Ahmed is also the author of Achinpakhi Infinity: Indigenous Theatre of Bangladesh, a book considered to be the most authentic and elaborated documentation of the indigenous performing art forms in our country.

What made Jamil contemplate applying the indigenous performing art forms in urban theatre? According to him, "I began to think about the 'national theatre' concept in the mid-'70s, while I was a student of the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi. There I saw BV Karanth, Bansi Kaul and Habib Tanvir devising performances aimed at forging an 'Indian identity' in their theatre arena. They worked on indigenous performances and developed a theatre form parallel to 'European Theatre'. I was really fascinated by Bansi's work.

"That motivated me and after I returned to Bangladesh, I tried to develop our own theatre concept. It was in 1979 and Dhaka Theatre in those days was busy with their production, Shakuntala. I remember urging Selim Al Deen, Nasiruddin Yousuff and SM Mohsin to work towards creating an itinerant troupe with a repertoire of plays devised in a manner similar to the Jatra and tour Bangladesh. In those days I had a misconception that Jatra was the only existing indigenous performing art form in Bangladesh. Today, this idea seems extremely naïve, but 25 years ago none of us had a clear conception of the indigenous theatre of Bangladesh and how to apply techniques drawn from it. The itinerant troupe never materialised, but when Selim Al Deen wrote Kittankhola (1981), we began to experiment with the indigenous performing art forms.

"In 1986 Dhaka Theatre arranged a workshop-based production on Gazir gaan, which I directed. Along with Afsar Ahmed and Salim al-Deen, I went to a village in Manikganj (actually Afsar's home) and began to work with a Gazir gaan troupe led by Hakim Ali. Later, we worked extensively at the Jahanginagar University. We redesigned the performance space and the costume, edited the text and attempted to re-articulate the performance of the lead-narrator. This re-devised Gazir gaan was presented at the Mahila Samity Stage but it was a complete failure. Neither did the text have any contemporary relevance nor could I re-articulate the technique of narrative acting effectively.

"When I went to the USA on a Fulbright fellowship in 1990, I had fruitful interactions with Danny Patridge, an ex-member of the San Francisco Mime Group, who had conducted two workshops in Bangladesh prior to my visit. I remember Salim al-Deen requesting me to carry his play Chaka with me. Dhaka Theatre rejected the play on grounds that it was difficult to enact on stage as it was entirely in a narrative form. At the Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, I translated the Chaka as The Wheel and jointly directed it with Danny. It was during the rehearsals that Danny showed me the techniques of narrative acting. The key factors are communion with the spectators and avoiding 'blank space' during performance while transforming from one character to another", adds Jamil.

Jamil has conducted extensive fieldwork on the indigenous performing art forms at the grass-root level, which he considers as the backbone of his directorial strength.

Asked about the difference between the performances of rural artistes and that of urban theatre actors, Jamil says, "The rural performers are more communicative than the urban performers. The rural artistes often do not work with written scripts. They improvise quite extensively during performance and the improvisations focus on contemporary issues and needs of the spectators. As a result, their performances are infused with more spontaneity. Urban performers have to work with a written script and the devised performance leaves little or no provision for improvisation."

Jamil believes in praxis, in a manner that theory and practice interact with each other dialectically. "Theory without practice may only be verbalisation and practice without theory can end in mere activism. Instead of seeking 'authentic' indigenous theatre of Bangladesh, one should be bold enough to recognise that boundaries and categories are futile.

As for the 'national theatre idiom' of Bangladesh, one must not forget that it should include the identity of all the ethnic communities living in this country. Taking into account the problematic notion of 'nation', all the bitter memories that the Bangla-speaking ethnic community has inscribed on the other ethnic communities such as Santhals, Garos, Chakmas, one should nevertheless strive to work towards a distinct identity that embraces the entire humanity".