Everything is Theatre
by Probir Guha
We all quote the famous Shakespeare saying, “The World is a Stage and
we are all actors” but seldom do we interpret it correctly. Just
think, we are all performing day and night, even when we are asleep.
Out of us, those who proclaim this we recognise them as “Actors”. This
is not true for all the “performing arts”. It is true only for
Theatre, TV and Film. If we change the word “Actor” to “Performer”
then we are all performing every time. Be it the dancer, the magician,
the neighbourhood tooth-powder seller, the “hajmi” pill seller in the
train, the shopkeeper, the colourful callgirls at the metro station
and park street, the fish-seller in the market, the school-college
teachers, the corporate employee and the boss, the politician, the
students and their parents, the labourer, the farmer, the street
beggar – everybody…everyone of us are perpetually performing. Some of
us aware, some unaware, some proclaim, some don’t, some willingly,
some unwillingly are – but all of us are performers.
You may be experienced in some of the aspects but are inexperienced in
most of the other aspects of these various “performances”. May be you
are a very famous teacher. You have visited your friend house and have
developed a very close friendship with his little daughter. And the
little daughter is lovingly requesting you to tell her a “Ghost Story”
But, neither do you believe in ghosts nor do you know how to prepare a
story. You never even imagined that such a situation might develop and
you will have to perform the role of a “Story-teller”. Your mind is
filled with tomorrow’s meeting with the education council where you
will have to put up your case for getting your book on “Economics”
passed for this years school syllabus. How will you stand in front of
them, how will you answer their queries… what if it is not passed… how
will you console yourself? All your life you have undermined “actors”
and made very effort to keep you loved ones away from theatre and
acting. Now, you are getting it… not only the so called “actors” but
we all have to “perform”.
Let us imagine that our mind is divided into 3 parts – Conscious,
sub-conscious and unconscious. Conscious is our mindfulness. It is
affected by our social system, our ancestral heritage, our moral
sense, our religion and is reflected in our personality. Every body
has five constituents – awareness, emotion, rationale, lust and
mobility, all intertwined together. The senses of sight, sound, smell,
touch and taste gives the brain the input which results in some
reaction in the body. “Conscious” is what we can communicate to
others, through speech or writing, appropriately or inappropriately,
completely or partially. But there are a lot of things in my mind
about which most of the time I do not think about nor do I tell
anyone. These are hidden deep inside dark alleys of our mind.
Sometimes they surface and again disappear. I know about them but they
are suppressed. This is the Sub-conscious state. And beneath this the
last layer is the Unconscious. The Conscious and Unconscious are the
visible portion or the tip of the “ice-berg” whereas the sub-conscious
is the 90% submerged portion of the “ice-berg”. That portion where I
have not yet ventured into neither have I seen it or understood it.
But it exists! The symptoms are visible every now and then. Just like
rashes, fever, boils, sore and cysts appear as physical manifestation
of some hidden illness in our body, the sub-conscious thoughts
sometimes manifest in our life. The unconscious, hidden in the
darkness of our mind, is an area of immense potential. It is the
centre of all my creativity and new thoughts. It suddenly rises in our
mind and sometimes in our dreams. What I dream is my unconscious. Most
of a persons “Goodness” is all accumulated in these “Unconscious”
thoughts. But these are suppressed due to my restricted freedom of
expression. Inside me there is a thief and a policeman. I can do a lot
of things but I don’t do it, can think a lot but I don’t. All that I
do or don’t do, think or I don’t think are guided by my own
thief-police morality. My morality has been nourished by my social
surroundings and thus is governed by the do’s and don’ts of the social
structure that we live in. For example, if you are in Europe you may
kiss a girl in broad daylight if you wish to, no body will even bother
to stop by and look at you, but in India forget “kissing” even the
thought of it is sacrilege. My morality will never allow that to
happen. There are two types of “Morality”, one, is reflected in my
external behaviour which in turn is influenced by my immediate
society, and the other is reflected in my internal being, which is
mostly influenced by what we call “my Habits”. The part of my
“morality” that is influenced by my “habits” we call that “The Person”
and the part that is influenced by the society, the part which is my
external behaviour is “the Personality”. We are only able to perceive
this “ Personality” and the “Person” always remains hidden from us.
Within this “person” is also hidden all my real characteristics.
Sometimes even we ourselves are unable to see the “Person”. We “act”
as if the “personality” that others are able to perceive is the
“person” that I am which is totally incorrect. So, you see, whatever
little we know about each other, including ourselves is actually the
“Tip of the Iceberg”. The real “you” is hidden in the submerged part
of the Iceberg. That is why it is imperative to try to search the real
“You”. This is where “Theatre” can help you. “Theatre” can be the
medium of your search.
Let’s take another perspective. I have come to watch a play. The scene
starts with a boy and a girl. The girl is Muslim and the boy Hindu.
They are deeply in love with each other and they are very tense, he is
a Hindu and she a Muslim, will their parents accept their
relationship? Both of them decide that they will honestly and without
fear tell their parent about their relationship. They do tell their
parents and they happily accept them. But, they are get worried
whether the society will accept it or not? Will they be outcast? They
too decide to go and seek permission from the Villagers. They call a
meeting of the village panchayat and apprise the village folks about
the situation. And the villagers happily agree to the proposal. The
Hindu girl gets married to the Muslim girls and the villagers bless
the married couple. Both the boy and the girls were schoolteachers.
Luckily in accordance to the pay commission’s recommendation they both
get a hefty hike in their pay. That year the monsoon is also good and
the villagers have a good harvest – the couple is happy the villagers
are happy and everywhere there is peace and happiness – how do you
find this story? Boring and too perfect, isn’t it? Right! We don’t go
to the cinema / natak to see this “All’s well” “Everything’s perfect”
kind of depictions. If drama does not have violence, treachery, lust,
cruelty, fighting, confrontations, etc. then we do not even consider
it as “drama”. We want to see theft, dacioty, murder, riot, rape, and
depravity in drama/Natak. Which means we want to see “negative”,
“sick” characters. That’s why on stage, we “actors” have to act as
these “sick” characters. The “Sickness” is present in our
“Unconscious” state. I try to explore this “unconscious” through
Theatre. Those who do this knowingly, with full awareness, are
treading a dangerous path, and I believe these people are the real
actors…Theatre means to search oneself in his own darkness. A Zen monk
once said – To search and finally find the non-existant needle in a
dark room, is called Zen. Is this Zen or Theatre? Or is it all
synonymous? This search…for the “Pagoler Paroshpathor” – the fanatic’s
search for the magic stone… which we find and loose and search again…
this search is called “Art”. What we eventually find… we call that
“Craftsmanship”. Thus Craft is the reproduction of pre-existing
models. But, Art discovers essences. The act of converting those “sick
characters” into “healthy characters” and developing my own good
qualities is what I call “Theatre”.
Whether you engage in theatre or not, if you really want to be the
proud owner of a “healthy character” you have to learn the art of
“performance”. And also encourage your children to learn it… So, what
are you waiting for… every day is a new day and it is never too late
to start.
--
.Probir Guha
