In Search of Utopia

Masks have been used to lend the production a visual richness.

Kamaluddin Nilu: As you know that Centre of Asian Theatre has always gone for producing plays that are relevant in Bangladeshi milieu, and most of the CAT Repertory productions were aimed to address various social issues. The Mission is tremendously relevant in the contemporary world politics, societal issues and also important from the global economic point of views; and Heiner Muller is much talked about and the most influential and controversial playwright in European theatre.

DS: Did you have to do some adaptation in the presentation?

KN: The text is highly relevant to the contemporary world and does as such not call for any adaptation. I have simply tried to see the play through the eyes of Muller himself. However, through the production I have further emphasised the linkage between the text and what is happening in the world today. I have tried to depict what is really going on in the name of politics and globalisation.

DS: What was the theme of the play? Was it a search for a lost Utopia? How is the playwright's pessimism turned into hope?

KN: A mission assigned to three emissaries by the National Assembly of France -- to ferment a revolution of the slaves in Jamaica after and within a year of the French revolution -- is the theme of the play. It was a mission to stir up a revolution of the blacks in Jamaica against the British rule, but ultimately it became a failure in view of Napoleon's coming into power and the massive betrayal of national institutions in France. The play is not any imitation of reality but presented in a fragmentary way as in a dream like reminiscence of the lost mission.

The playwright with use of strong ironies and metaphors is severely critical to the colonizers and masters in the world, and to the existing social, political and economic system. He is pessimistic about the mission as he implicates that revolution will never be more than a means of filling time and modern men are bereft of any clear mission.

DS: How did the plot move? Was it about the crushing of the black slaves in Jamaica during the French revolution? Please elaborate.

KN: The three emissaries assigned to foment the revolution of the blacks, one of whom was a Jamaican slaver's son, arrived in Jamaica. Very carefully they began to proceed by assuming masks as if they were not at all against the world of masters and slaves. This was an attempt of the National Assembly of France willing to extricate Jamaica and the slaves from slavery and the British crown, and this happened after and within a year of the French revolution.

DS: Will you say something about the stage props and the costumes (including the mask) that you used? What about the spectacles of the songs and the dances?

KN: We tried to use props and costumes so as to link the happenings on the stage with the Jamaican perspective in that historic period. The text itself calls for use of masks in various ways, but what more I have done with masks is that these have been used to lend the production a visual richness and also to make it meaningful with my own interpretations. Music with heavy drumbeats used in the play reminds us of the Jamaican landscape, as I tried to create a realistic atmosphere. However, the spectacles of songs and dances are an amalgam of modern and traditional movements and dances.

DS: Will you give some details of Heiner Muller, the playwright?

KN: Heiner Muller, born in East Germany in 1929, is widely regarded as one of the most influential and controversial writer in European theatre. His dramatic works have shattered conventional notions of theatre, continuing where Brecht left off. The dark suggestive power of his works radiates a disturbing and provocative energy which attracts and repels, confirms and irritates, shocks and seduces. Rejecting the safety of theatre grammar, he constantly reinvents structure, inciting fresh, stimulating vital confrontation between theatre and literature.

DS: What are the various symbolism that you used (for example for betrayal and beauty)?

KN: Use of symbols is manifold, both in the text by Muller and in the visuals I depicted in the production. In my production, Muller's character of First Love has turned out to be the symbol of beauty, power, militarism and neo-colonialism that one can easily relate to the world perspective. Here betrayal and beauty are interrelated as one's submission to beauty can necessarily bring about betrayal from any sacred mission. The elevator is suggestive to the extreme mechanical process, the hustle and bustle of modern men and their desperation in such conditions, and the risk of being devoid of identity and the concept of time and space and going back to so to speak a primitive world. I have therefore put a greater importance to the elevator scene which is a superb creation by Muller to express the imagery of human beings in a flux. The scene of Mary up in the air is also emblematic to the fact that religion proves ineffective to placate you in a conflict of materialistic interests.

DS: How did you handle the issue of sex in the play?

KN: The issue of sex is strongly present in Muller's text and is an unavoidable element when the play is to be staged. In a country like ours, however, the theme is difficult to portray unaltered. In the production the theme has therefore been dealt with in a cautious way, by merely making hints where Muller is straightforward with his imageries.

DS: Who are the actors and actresses in the play?

KN: The Mission is acted by Monir Ahmed, Shahdat Hossain, Afjal Hossain, Abul Kalam Azad, Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, Delwar Hossain, Shipra Das, Sabina Sultana Ratna, Sathi Sarker and others.