‘A Life in the Theatre': A new play offers a slice-of-life story on stage

Mint

6 days ago

Afsana Theatre's rehearsal room ahead of the premiere of David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre in August feels confusing. Everything that should be off-stage has suspiciously found its way on to the stage. The wings are inside out, the actor is facing away from the audience, and the backstage crew is going about their chaotic work like no one's watching. It's what happens when theatre makers decide to turn the spotlight on to their own lives. Written by legendary American playwright David Mamet in 1977, the play tells the story of two actors—the senior Robert, and junior John. Robert is like the theatre stalwart we are all too familiar with, and John is the talented young kid on the block. Through a series of on-stage and off-stage scenes, Mamet traces the relationship between the actors and betrays in some detail, their predicament on stage and beyond.
For co-directors Gagan Dev Riar and Jitender Singh, reading A Life in the Theatre was a bit like looking into the mirror. 'Many of the conversations sounded like they had been mined from personal spaces as theatre makers," says Singh. Riar could relate to both Robert and John, and was also reminded of stalwarts in the theatre fraternity he'd crossed paths with. 'We have a lot of senior actors in our midst who are well read, articulate and intelligent. But, it doesn't always translate to the stage. I found that very relatable," says Riar. Riar was sold on the balance of the poetic and the humorous in the language of the play. For Singh, it was the accuracy of the relationships. 'I could also relate to the senior-junior relationship between actors. It made me realise despite the hierarchy there are no systems to bind or separate you," says Singh. 'The pawns and the king go back into the same box at the end of the day," Riar adds. As theatre makers, it brought them a catharsis that came from their own worlds.
Riar and Singh had many concerns, but surprisingly, relatability wasn't one of them. 'Of the 200 people who are watching it, 50 may be watching a play for the first time but they are doing so with the 150 who aren't. We did not want to break everything down for com prehension," says Riar, adding that it can be compared to a visit to the grocery store or an adventure activity. 'They may not understand theatre but they understand life. It's how Mamet puts it—you cannot separate the time spent at a grocery story or pursuing an activity from life itself," he says.
But, besides the two-curtained setup and virtually turning the stage inside out, there was a lot that Riar and Singh needed to do to bring a nearly 50-year-old play about theatre to a Mumbai audience. There are a bunch of Indianisms to replace the more archaic expressions and references. Robert (played by Riar) becomes 'Robert da" in the hands of John, played by Avik Goswami. Some of the on-stage scenes written in the styles of Western playwrights were replaced through additional ones by Ira wati Karnik and Saurabh Nayyar. 'For example, a scene about the French Revolution is replaced by a scene from the Mahabharat," explains Riar. 'Those written in the Chekhovian style are traded for those that sound like popular Indian plays Andha Yug, Ashad ka ek Din, or Ek aur Dronacharya," he adds. Singh also wanted to keep the reality of Mumbai theatre actors in mind when telling a story so close to their lives. 'Actors here do plays in both English and Hindi. It is why we've kept some of the on-stage scenes in Hindi," he says.
There have been other plays and performances—both in the past and recently—about theatre life. Michael Frayn's Noises Off, written in 1982 —which takes its name from a common stage direction—is set in a rehearsal room. A version of it was produced by Atul Kumar's The Company Theatre in 2013. More recently, Gopal Dutt's musical show titled Aur Karo Theatre has received all kinds of viral fame for its stories and songs about the lives of theatre actors. However, staging a story that they con nected with instantly and is seemingly about their own lives wasn't as easy as they had imagined, Singh and Riar admit. Costume changes never end and the stage theatre actors in mind when tell ing a story so close to their lives. looks like the prop-lined battlefield that their real lives can sometimes look like. Their learnings in the rehearsal room have been interspersed by nostalgia and anecdotes from theatre lives.
But, for the audience, Riar tells us, A Life in the Theatre, can be an entertaining ride. 'For the past few years, I've seen a lot of issue-based work in Indian theatre. There hasn't been a simple, slice-of-life story on stage. This play asks questions but also generates laughter and empathy," he says.
On 2-3 August, 8pm, Rangshila Theatre, Mumbai. Tickets on www.bookmyshow.com.
Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai-based culture writer.