Diplomacy takes centre stage at the South Asian Theatre Festival, says Karuna John.
 As spoilsport politicians and sport-entrepreneurs shake their heads at Pakistani cricketers waiting to join the Indian Premier League, a theatre festival this fortnight recalls an equally shaming episode for the Indian stage. In 2005, the Karachi-based theatre group Tehrik-i-Niswan was in Lucknow, invited by the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia. It was a cross-border collaboration of exemplary design: the Tehrik production Jikr-e-Nashunida was directed by Prasanna Ramaswamy, an Indian of course, as part of a series of events titled “Staging Peace”.
It seemed to make sense that, when Tehrik was asked to perform an excerpt by the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, they agreed – and did a segment about American atrocities in war. But WIPSA, funded by the Ford Foundation, accused them of breach of contract and demanded that they censor their script. When Tehrik refused, their bookings were cancelled and they were forced to return to Pakistan.
Obviously, using the word “peace” over and over doesn’t necessarily add up to a statement about regional solidarity. By contrast, a festival with an entirely different theme can make a strong statement through the barbed wire. This fortnight, Tehrik returns to India with Jang Ab Nahi Hogi, an adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, about a women’s sex boycott to force their husbands to end a war.
Tehrik’s production is part of the first South Asian Theatre Festival, themed around women’s empowerment. The festival will open with Nati Binodini, directed by Amal Allana, which tells the story of the eponymous actress who started out as a prostitute in Calcutta and became one of the very first women actors in Bengali theatre. Binodini was equally an entrancing actress who pulled in huge crowds and a target of conservative scorn and horror, a profane woman of the night who dared to play saints and goddesses on stage. The script was developed out of Binodini’s published autobiography, and five separate actors play Binodini on stage.
Other Indian plays that will be staged include Sakkubai, directed by Nadira Babbar, Draupadi, directed by Kanhai Lal and Nagamandala, directed by Neelam Mansingh Choudhry. According to Kirti Jain, National School of Drama professor of modern Indian theatre who is curating the event, the festival will bring to the city new workslike a Bhutanese version of Romeo and Juliet in Dzongkha, their national laguage. “There’s very little spoken dialogue,” said Tshering Gyeltshen, the co-director of Galem gi Lu. “It’s mostly movements, music, live singing and video images mixed with live performance. The spoken part primarily consists of two monologues.” Among the other productions representing every country in South Asia are Behular Bhasan from Bangaldesh and Salsal and Shahmaama from Afghanistan, a reflection on the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. Now that sounds like it could be a genuine platform for staging peace.
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