Twenty-five years ago, while studying at the National School of Drama, eminent theatre artiste V Balakrishnan and his friends encountered an incident that stayed with him until he was able to pour it all out in a way only he can — by penning a play — Exit Wounds — based on the experience. But is there really an exit from wounds?
“There was an accident in one of our physical classes when a classmate fell down from a height of two feet, and injured his spine. We rushed him to the Safdarjung Hospital. He had completely become paralysed, neck down. For the next two months, he was in the ICU, and then, unfortunately, he passed away,” shares Balakrishnan.
The hospital allowed only two people at a time to visit the patient, so Bala tells us that they would take turns as attenders. “What I remember is that outside the ICU, there is a space like a waiting area, but slowly it gets transformed into a place where people also sleep and start communing with each other. Relationships get formed. Everyone there has somebody inside with different stories. I remember there was a girl who had consumed poison, and there was someone else who had some other accident. Some are there for a few days, others are there for months… So this whole experience of those two months stayed with me and that is what triggered this play, especially the first half; the second half is, of course, imagination,” Bala opens up.
Written, designed and directed by Balakrishnan, Exit Wounds is the winner of the Samhita Manch Award 2023 — English Category.
As the space outside the ICU becomes a spectator, we ask Bala how he has ensured it develops (as a character). “How this space starts getting life is the way people utilise it. For instance, there is a portion (of the space) marked for women, but since there is not ample space, people start merging in. And they also kind of create a place where there is a little bit of light, so they can do some office work. At a government hospital, there’s no fancy water dispenser, so some water arrangement is made by people themselves. A lot of it is from how this space looked 25 years ago. There used to be a white board where bed numbers, patients’ names and their conditions were written. People would be watching that white board as it changed from ‘critical,’ ‘stable,’ ‘very critical’… And sometimes, you know, the name will just be removed… Those imageries have become a part of this play,” he says.
As the play culminates, audience will be gripped by a cathartic moment. “This is when everyone realises their base emotions and an understanding of how important it is for us to be there for each other, plainly, as people.”
Bala has approached the play objectively, in comparison to how he felt 25 years ago. “I was 21- 22 years old when the incident occurred; there was a lot of angst and pain, a lot of existential questioning. You start challenging your own faith and belief, but at a more mature age, you are able to look at it with a lot of objectivity. It is we who tangle ourselves to the concepts of morality and rights and wrong and true and false, wherein life by itself is a smooth flow. Life just goes on.”
Tickets at INR 300.
August 9, 7 pm; August 10, 3 pm & 7 pm.
At Alliance Francaise of Madras, Nungambakkam.
Email:rupam@newindianexpress.com
X: @rupsjain