#PastForward: Durga Venkatesan explores memory, identity and everyday politics

Bengaluru-based theatre practitioner Durga Venkatesan never trained formally in theatre, but that has become the very thing that shapes her voice. She began in college with street theatre, moved through Delhi and Bengaluru and is now building her base in Mumbai. Each place changed her, she says, because theatre itself changes with people and culture. “Most of my learning has been through theatre. I never had a syllabus, but I worked with practitioners who encouraged me to experiment and not follow the traditional rules,” she explains. This freedom pushed her towards hybrid forms, where performance blends with installation and the audience becomes part of the work.

Her practice has grown around personal stories and sensory memories. Durga says she never wanted to pickup a script written by someone else and simply deliver it. “It was liberating to create work from my own life. It comes from what I have seen and felt and that gives the work its uniqueness,” she says. This approach is clear in pieces like Touchy Topic and Garam Roti, where she explores ideas of memory, body and identity. Touchy Topic was born during a 10-day workshop and she still finds it surprising how quickly something so intimate took form. “Not all theatre pieces need two years to make. Sometimes a piece appears when you strip away everything and trust the process,” she tells us.

Trust, participation and the politics of presence

In Touchy Topic, she stands silently for 16 minutes as people come up to her and share their experiences of inappropriate touch. The risk is obvious, but so is her belief in openness.

“I don’t negotiate at that moment. I have safety practices, yes, but the rest of it is letting go. Every show becomes its own piece because the audience changes the work,” she avers. Her idea of trust lies in observing life as it happens, not controlling it. With Garam Roti (which she is going to perform in Jaipur today), she pushed herself further by being alone on stage for an hour and a half. The piece includes an audio library of women from across India speaking about their relationship with garam roti, their fear or lack of fear and the labour involved in making it. “My story, along with theirs, defines the politics of the piece. The library is never complete. The stories keep changing and the politics keeps changing with them,” she shares.

Durga believes Indian theatre is shifting. For her, the strongest change is the move towards representation and personal narratives. “People are coming out with their own stories. It is creating a more unique voice in theatre,” she says. She also sees a growing awareness about fair labour. “The idea that theatre is an unpaid job is changing. There has to be value attached to our work. Otherwise it is not a fair practice,” says Durga.

At the same time, she says the field is still missing one important skill: the ability to talk about, package and sustain one’s work. “We don’t always know how to produce or sell our pieces. If you don’t have money to rent a stage, what do you do? How do you make the piece sustainable?” she asks. For her, sustainability is as much a part of theatre as artistic creation. It decides whether a piece lives beyond its first few shows.

Durga keeps her future open. She sees her practice growing with each new space and each new community she meets. “My work already depends on people. It is community-based by nature. I don’t want to limit what it can become,” she opines.

This year also marks an important step in her journey. Durga founded her own theatre company, Playhouse Productions, where she works as a creative producer. “Playhouse is a very important part of my journey. People like Sukrit Mahajan and Meghna Manglani are shaping my coming years. We produced Equus and it has been running since August. We are now building more work under this banner,” she reveals.

As a young theatre-maker shaping the next wave of Indian performance, Durga hopes the field continues to ask honest questions. And she hopes artistes feel empowered to build from their own lives. “The personal and the political aspects in my work are the same for me. What I experience is my politics. That is where my work begins,” she concludes.

Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com

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