New play interprets Shakespeare through Contemporary dance and gibberish

A scene from Khwaab Sa from their premiere in TaiwanWhen we stepped into a rehearsal studio in Andheri recently Anamika Tiwari who plays Titania and Gagandev Singh Riar who essays Oberon in KhwaabSa an adaptation of Shakespearersquos A Midsummer Nightrsquos Dream were locked in a passionate scene Entangled in an embrace their dialogues in The Company Theatrersquos latest production sounded a lot like Bhojpuri to us When we whispered to director Atul Kumar asking him if his new play was in a regional language he nodded in the negative ldquoItrsquos gibberishrdquo he said flashing a knowing smile ldquo We have used phonetic impressions of various North Indian languages and invented our own language If you listen to it you might think itrsquos a dialect but itrsquos nonsense We manage to communicate with gesturesrdquo he saidAnamika Tiwari and Gagandev Singh Riar rehearsing a scene PicNimesh DaveTaiwan to MumbaiThe play mdash a mix of Contemporary dance Hindi gibberish and live Contemporary World Music performed by artistes from all over India mdash was commissioned by Kham Theatre in Taipei Taiwan After opening there in October the play is now ready to premiere in India with a run in Bengaluru Delhi Mumbai Lucknow and Pune in January ldquoWe have changed about 30 per cent of the content that the play opened with including the music dance sequences and costumes An actor had to be replaced toordquo revealed Kumar adding ldquoIt was a luxury that usually theatre companies donrsquot have I am glad we could afford to do itrdquoAtul KumarKumarrsquos earlier play Piya Behrupiya an adaptation of Shakespearersquos Twelfth Night 2012 featuring live Folk music opened in London and turned out to be a commercial success ldquoI like Folk music but doing a musical like Piya Behrupiya was an experiment that worked commercially However I can do commercial elsewhere Thatrsquos not why I do theatre I will experiment Itrsquos a coincidence that this is a Shakespeare play toordquo shared 48yearold Kumar who has received basic training in Kathakali and Kalaripayattu in Kerala for over three years as well as a stint with the master of visual theatre Philippe Genty in FranceModern takeldquoI wanted to work with Contemporary dance and that was my trigger point and my opening inspiration I will explore it for a bit and this play is my first one in that attempt There is live music this time too but itrsquos Western as opposed to Folk There are drums and electronic music There are also percussion instruments from around the world We will use the sarangi and tabla for an Indian tone along with Electronic sampling of sounds from acoustic to everyday sounds and looping it Itrsquos an experiment I am trying for the first timerdquo he said as the actors readied to rehearse the next sceneWhile he corrected the nuances in the tone of the dialogue we noticed that Kumar creates a scene along with the actor We watched as an actor made a suggestion and the scene suddenly has a brand new interpretation ldquoWe are sticking to the original play We have interpreted it though The main loverrsquos track in the play doesnrsquot uses his lines at all as itrsquos communicated through dance The choreographer Diya Naidu is able to conceive parallels from words to gesturerdquo shared Kumar The sets are simple but execution is elaborate ldquoThings keep appearing and disappearing as the imagery and movement is dream like It has to work in different theaters which is the biggest challenge since we are travelling quite a bit with the play rdquo he explainedThe play was conceptualised and rehearsed at TCTrsquos artist residency in Kamshet As we watched the rehearsals in Andheri the dancers of the play rehearsed in Bengaluru ldquoWe held open auditions in multiple cities and chose Attakkalari from Bengalururdquo says Kumar adding that working with dancers has been a creative learning for himldquoDancers work differently Therersquos a strict discipline they follow and they also rehearse a lot more than theatre people They are not very social as opposed to theatre people who hang out drink and gossip together They are more focussed on their work The ethos ethics and language are different too Irsquom surprised every day while working with them Their interpretations are great since the style is contemporary and there is no fixed narrative Sometimes itrsquos difficult to merge the two worldsrdquo shared Kumar before excusing himself to work on a soundtrack with one of the musicians