City-based theatre company to perform without a script

An actor picks up a ball walks from one point to another across the stage and at the end of the movement returns to the starting point to begin all over again Except that in the second loop another actor enters the stage and shares the space with him even as they go about doing their individual actions without any overt interaction The process repeats itself until 25 actors with 25 distinct actions performed in a loop create organised chaos as they move through space and time Do the actions remain at the mechanical level or does something emerge from bodies in a loopThis exploration forms the premise of The Company Theatres upcoming debut performance This Is All There Is When There Is All This The 60minute theatrical experience which will be performed at Prithvi Theatre for six days starting Tuesday is inspired by acclaimed Polish filmmaker Zbigniew RybczyAringu00c2u0084skis Tango which won an Oscar in the Best Animated Short Film category in 1981 The film depicts an array of characters in a sparsely furnished room with four points of entry and exit going about their chores And yet by the time the room is a full house the viewer is pulled into the buzz by the strange transformation of the banal into the surrealWe began with basic everyday actions But when 25 people started walking on the stage in different directions at different speeds and rhythms it started making amazing theatrical sense without actually telling any particular story through a narrative or written script In fact the actions became the script says noted theatre actordirector Atul Kumar who is one of the actors in the interestingly titled performance which itself has the connotation of a loop Everyday objects like doors a stack of newspapers lock and key and stethoscope are some of the props used in the performance which took over a month of intensive rehearsals to come togetherBeing part of a piece stripped off a script was akin to unlearning deconstructing and then rebuilding a concept As actors our immediate reaction is to look for stories behind an action Shakespeare for instance had a concrete script to his plays that you cannot mess around with Theres a meter rhyme and breath pattern woven into his writing The idea was to bring that kind of precision to a physical script a script for your muscles explains performer director and awardwinning lighting designer Sujay Saple who has directed the performance with Rachel DSouzaA creative for the performanceThe actors many of who have a background in a variety of dance forms mdash including Kumar who is trained in kathakali and kalaripayattu mdash have brought their experience to the stage We started with exploring and experimenting freely in space but later because of the permutations and combinations and the choices that actors made we slowly moved towards a specific structure and fixed choreography Because we are working in the idea of a loop we need to be absolutely identical in every loop Even raising a finger which is not part of a previous loop has a domino effect says KumarSujay Saple and Atul KumarSo what emerged from this dynamic of bodily movements After the point where the actions become mechanical they evolve into a heightened state which allows actors to explore an emotional landscape as opposed to imposing emotions on the performance says Saple To further explain his point he says The body is political You cannot take that away If I tell an actor to take a position in an empty space where will he stand Bang in the centre in a corner facing the audience or turning his back to them This is all part of an actors choiceAdds Kumar Like in most abstract art forms consciously or unconsciously certain movements start depicting the mental space and personal history of the actor and the times he lives in Feeling extreme pain and pathos jubilant wronged or violated are emotions we all go through and when those emotions are evoked not by a specific script but just by tacit interaction with others in the same space through a shared glance for instance imagine how powerful that can beSaple points out that in these times its impossible to create an apolitical act We are living in frightening and difficult times so the collective anxiety about where we are headed reflects in the performance he says For the audience the mix of familiar and unfamiliar and being able to relate to some of the actors would be an interesting experience We begin to notice the little details and invest in what we are watching Saple addsWith lines merging and art forms becoming collaborative both Saple and Kumar feel that the time to label a performance as a play or dance is long gone The scope for such experimental pieces in Mumbai feels Kumar is opening up because a lot of young people are doing immersive theatre and sitespecific work and generating new audiencesAll of us especially in a city like Bombay are stuck in a loop in a rut which may be domestic or commercial or personal We live in loops and we keep changing through that Saple says When you watch that on the stage in a condensed form it does something to youCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates