Mahesh Dattani’s latest work imagines a meeting between Alexander the Great and an Indian monk, exploring desire and detachment
The cast practice a movement from the play
Queerness is the opposite of colonisation. Jonathan Taikina Taylor’s sentence echoes, especially in a week where the LGBTQiA+ community regroups to battle the odds against the Transgender Persons Amendment Bill.
“Colonisation is about going into a culture and dictating terms, norms and behaviour. Queerness is the opposite. It is the community coming together to create a system which allows for divergence, and creates a system to enable it,” says the director. Taylor along with his co-conspirator, playwright Mahesh Dattani, hope to explore this in their production, The Monk & The Warrior, that will premiere in the city today.
Jonathan Taikina Taylor (left) oversees a rehearsal session. PICS COURTESY/SuperGeographics
A cross-cultural epic, the production stems from the story of a conqueror, Alexander the Great, meeting an Indian monk. While one seeks to conquer the world, the other is on the path of renouncement. Yet, as Dattani points out for all his fame as a conqueror, the Macedonian Alexander was historically queer, and a monk in ancient India would be no stranger to the subject of desire.
“Their roles blur as the play goes on,” he explains. This fluidity is also reflected in the exchange of ideas, journey of the characters, and the movement and music in the play. Taylor reveals that Finnish composer Eero Hämeenniemi worked to create a “tension between the movement and the music.”
That approach mirrors the play’s existence in a society, and a world, that is increasingly close-minded. Dattani observes, “The need for war, and the rise of homophobia are connected. One is a negation of the other. Queerness is when you create a culture, or life, or a family that is not the norm. That is what we are all battling for — a peace of our own.”
Jonathan Taikina Taylor and Mahesh Dattani
Throughout history, people in power have often sought to co-opt the past for one point of view, says the Brooklyn-based Taylor. “That is why it is important to tell stories that include queer people. It is a tricky space we are in, historically and socially, and looking back to our past, and understanding it will truly help.” The artistic director of The SuperGeographics once travelled to India in 2019 to be introduced to a nuanced, and wholesome queer community in India. “I wanted to follow that key and see where it led,” he says.
The use of movement, a grand scale, and contrasting music is also his way of going against the norm of realism in contemporary theatre. “The journey of the production resembles the journey of the protagonists in many ways,” admits Dattani. Reflecting on the two protagonists, Taylor observes, “To follow desire is just as beautiful as to following detachment. The freedom to choose is important. That, I think, is the queer lens we are talking about,” he concludes.
ON April 2 to 5; 4 pm and 7.30 pm
AT Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point.
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Choice of self
While queerness has been a part of Dattani’s works, including his breakthrough work — On a Muggy Night in Bombay (1998) — this one is different. “It was centred on societal expectations, and the response. The Monk & The Warrior is more interpersonal. They claim it [queerness] for themselves, not as a response to society.”
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