“As artistes, we put out honest pieces of artwork that we hope will make people think and feel in ways that they normally don’t do,” remarks award-winning Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna, who is collaborating with the Kanchipuram-based Kattaikkuttu Sangam in a first-ever co-production between Carnatic music and Kattaikkuttu, a centuries-old folk theatre form.
The collaborative presentation, titled Karnatic Kattaikkuttu, presented by Mumbai-based performing arts company First Edition Arts, made its debut in 2017. It has since been performed in events including the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 and the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa and is set to premiere in Chennai this Sunday.
“Kattaikkuttu is a beautiful art form in which music, dance, and drama come together. The way of storytelling is very unique. While they feature stories that are mythological, they connect it to the everyday happenings and people,” shares TMK, who along with his wife and vocalist Sangeetha Sivakumar, Kuttu actor and playwright P Rajagopal and Hanne De Bruin, theatre scholar and programs director at the Kattaikkuttu Sangam, ideated and put together this unique performance.
Talking about how the idea of this collaboration came into being, Krishna says, “After watching a couple of kuttu performances, Sangeetha and I started interacting with Rajagopal and Henne. It was much later only that the idea of collaboration struck us. This is not a fusion. Rather than mixing up two artforms, this is a conversation between the Carnatic sound and the kuttu sound and the two very different cultures they represent.”
A traditional Kattaikkuttu performance features episodes from epics and puranas. In the performance lasting two hours, the artistes comprising actors, musicians and singers, will perform acts from the Mahabharata such as the disrobing of Draupadi and the 18th day of the great war, that features Duryodhana’s death. In this performance, the original (kuttu) play will be punctuated by Carnatic pieces, performed by Krishna, Sangeetha Sivakumar alongwith instrumental artistes such as violinist Akkarai Subhalakshmi, mridangam player K. Arun Prakash and ghatam player Guru Prasad. Apart from that, there will be a ‘Kattiyakkaran’ (the sutradhar), who will connect the worlds of mythology and real-life by interweaving the narrative with a social commentary.
Talking about the challenges while putting the production together, TMK says, “The biggest challenge was with the acoustics and sound. The kuttu artistes sing at the top octave whereas we sing on the bass octave. They don’t use the mic at all. Initially, we tried using microphones but it didn’t work because the difference in decibel level is so much. It was difficult to create a sound balance.”
As for the costumes, the main characters will be seen in an elaborate wooden shoulder and head ornaments called kattai. Apart from Rajagopal, the Kattaikkuttu cast features artistes such as S. Tamilarasi (Draupadi), R. Devan (Duhsasana), R. Kumar (Duryodhana), M. Duraisamy (1st Kattiyakkaran), A. Kailasam (2nd Kattiyakkaran), among others, accompanied by an orchestra that features S. Gobinath (talam), R. Balaji (harmonium), A. Selvarasu (mridangam & dholak) and P. Sasikumar (mukavinai).
Tickets from `150 onwards
3 rd, February
6:30 PM
Rukmini Auditorium, Kalakshetra