Renowned theatre director Sharanya Ramprakash, in collaboration with co-researcher Surabhi Vashist, embarked on a two-year adventure to unravel the untold stories of women who built the stage for Kannada Company Theatre. The duo traversed Karnataka, meeting iconic performers such as Manjulamma of Stree Nataka Mandali, Mysore Indiaramma, Babu Hiranniah, Deepak Paramasiviah, Jevargi Rajanna, Malathi Shree and Sumathi Shree among others. The culmination of this journey is the theatre play Project Darling, supported by the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) research grant and developed at Nirdigantha, an incubation centre for theatre by national award-winning actor Prakash Raj.
The genesis of Project Darling was not a preconceived theatrical venture but an adventure fuelled by a burning question: Who were the women who built this stage? The resulting production, as Ramprakash describes, is a meditation on female sexuality at the crossroads of censorship and culture. It transcends the individual stories of actresses, becoming a homage to the stage itself. She shares, “The idea when I went on this journey was not to make a play — it was an adventure that we threw ourselves into. No one had ever asked this question before us and we were asking it for the first time. The risks they (the theatre actresses) took and the abandonment with which they lived their lives as artistes were humbling. It often felt like nothing had changed.” The play delves into the lives of these forgotten actresses, examining their mutinies, joyful stories, subversions and the complexity of an absent history.
The central narrative revolves around a group of five performers on a quest for their artistic ancestry — women performers on whose shoulders their work stands — when they stumble upon an iconic character called Khanavali Chenni, who ruled the Kannada stage from about the 1970s and then she went missing. “Khanavali Chenni is not the heroine, she is not the vamp either — she is the clown, who treats the audience with her witty take on the men in the audience. Her narrative is full of hapless lovers and her adventures in the market where all the ‘brinjals’ stand up straight when they see her,” Sharanya reveals. While trying to find Chenni, they meet several other actresses who have their own stories to share. Will they eventually meet Chenni? What will they discover?
The play, influenced by German post-dramatic theatre — blends videos, photos and soundscapes from the research with song, dance, puppetry and clowning. Ramprakash explains, “The form allows for subversive imagery, challenging devices, improvisation and an exploration of the profound through the absurd, making Project Darling the riot that it is!” Project Darling challenges societal perceptions, redefining and reclaiming the idea of vulgarity.It confronts issues of respectability and performativity, weaving a narrative that retells history on the performers’ own terms. “This two-year research is filled with actresses — their mutinies, joyful stories, subversions and also my frustrations at the contradictory nature of my findings, the complexity of an absent history — all of this makes the content of the production. The play is not just about the lives of actresses, it examines something much larger — the protagonist of the piece is the stage itself,” the director of the play elaborates.
The stellar cast has each member contributing a unique perspective and skill set to the narrative. While Matangi Prasan, trained in both bharatanatyam and martial arts; Shrunga BV is a remarkable actor and puppeteer — both joining Shashank Rajashekar, Surabhi Vashist and Shobhana Kumari on stage. The creative brilliance behind Project Darling extends beyond the stage, with co-writer Kruti R Purappemane. The visual richness of the play is enhanced by photographs and footage from the research, snippets of soundscapes and a unique blend of EDM-infused Kannada company theatre music. The use of chorus singing, bharatanatyam and live camera improvisations add depth to the play’s political commentary. The set, costumes and props promise an eclectic mix, featuring aerial silk, live projections, cameras, typewriters, toilet paper, literary classics and kitchen supplies used in unexpected ways. “The notion that women have to behave a certain way, sit, stand, breathe, love, marry and reproduce in an ‘acceptable’ way. The control that the brahmanical patriarchy exerts on her autonomy is vulgar. The play also wonders what the idea of ‘performance’ means onstage when gender itself is a daily performance,” she signs off.
INR 200. December 9, 7.30 pm. At Vyoma Artspace and Studio Theatre, JP Nagar.
srushti@newindianexpress.com
@Sru_Kulkarni