Theatre as an initiator of change: An Essay on the possibilities of process and potential by Suresh Nampuri

The theatrical process as an initiator for change.

Theatre is an expression of warm bodies reacting to warm bodies on stage, producing a fleeting impression of truth unveiled, memory unraveled and mulled myth. 

Theatrical techniques probe truth telling as a conduit to reflecting on inner lives. But most spectacularly, theatre is play, an action, a gesture, the spoken word, an outward thrust of inner life seeking to connect and draw a reaction. On an empty stage, a human body walks in, and the ‘action’ begins starting with the express indeterminacy of what could happen next, a pleasurable tingle of lustily savoured anticipation spinballing into a gesture, a physical act of doing- and then there is a reaction- for the space around the performer may be empty, but no longer vacuum. There is an active charge around them, built up of the myriad possibilities raised by the first gesture or spoken word. A concealment of potential actions that is a bubble waiting to burst into the world. The stage is ripe for the next moment, and just like that, the audience has made the story their own, investing desperately into the next step, absorbing, in one single dive,  all the roil, the frisson and the turmoil of inner life that the performer has experienced through the entire process of making the performance. This is when the audience truly enters the story- and now is a collective warm body reacting to the presence of the performer. And that is when magic happens- 

But how does this magic begin- theatre is after all an evocative ritual- a character is invoked at the beginning and it possesses the body of the performer- what does it take to do this- In rehearsals for a play, in the early days, there is a sense of free wheeling experimentation- the performer stretches their body and voice and thoughts as far as possible, trying to get a sense of the character- a character could be angry here, raging there, pensive at a different time and ecstatic somewhen else- and all these individual states would be well justified situationally, but the crucial question that is always asked in rehearsals- what does one do now? Yes, there are lines to be read, choreography to be perfected- but first and most important, the performer has to find a move, a gesture, a simple one, but one that unlocks this moment and leads to the next- almost every theatrical technique is essentially a toolset for the performer to enact this getsure- one move- and then the space around the performer reacts- and then all he has to do is to react back- but what does this move consist of- theatre is an act of concentrated naturalness- actions and states of mind that are natural in the normal course of events and may take place over a span of years are condensed into a high-intense burst of one or two acts in an evening- states of mind leapfrog years, from irreverent transgressions to regret and eventual atonement and peace. But more importantly, the action is focused- a performer walking aimlessly on stage draws no reaction- a single move is precipitated and emerges naturally as a decisive choice- a reaction to the performer’s inner life- and this is essentially the core of performance- make a choice- almost existential dilemmas are choice issues- a crisis revolving around the problem of walking down one of many paths- or reacting to circumstances- or figuring out what to do with your state of mind- people with potential need to make a decisive choice that unlocks the path to harnessing it- having a voice in society is just the first step- but making yourself heard implies endowing your voice with a clear will- a goal to make a certain future real- that is the secret of performance- make the next moment happen- This process is intuitively felt by the audience too who can sense a transformation simmering in the wings- and the character arc that accompanies them, a series of micro choices that inflect not just the outer reality of the plot but shines a light on the inner moments that define us- for both performers and audiences, this is a chance to interrogate a familiar circumstance anew- question well lore and logic and eventually come to a conclusion about the nature of the reality they are operating in and the role they would like to adopt- it’s a moment to see things anew- and see if the character you have been playing so far, persecutor, casual bystander, victim is indeed the role you want to play- and choose a different path! Is the romance in Verona really a doomed love story or is it a statement of teenage rebellion against adult power structures, is Othello just a story of racial alienation and jealousy or is it also an epxloration of how alienation produces a loss of faith in the alienated- stripping them of their ability to believe- any story, is Chekov’s Seagull a peek into the langurous solecisms built into the striated gridiron of conservative decadent pre-revolutionary landlord country life or is it a probing commentary on memory as a performative act- something that can fuse past and present into one indissoluble identity and is an exemplar of how our memories inure us to injustices we would never formally condone or embrace! The stage is where we question the known and sense the presence of the undertow, the underlying truths under the surface. 

Theatre is in effect, a driver for questioning the status quo and a motive catalyst for change in society.