Fort Gloster. The name sounds magical and out of place in a multilingual locality spread around the boundary walls of a 152-year-old jute mill factory by the Ganga in Howrah district. On December 18, at a stone’s throw from the lofty walls of Fort Gloster, Chittopat Bauria, an exceptional theatre group, celebrated its 10th anniversary in its own art space, Amaler Janalay, with a magnificent production of Rabindranath Tagore’s Taser Desh. For someone who has been exposed to at least three different ways of performing this 1933 drama that Tagore dedicated to Subhas Chandra Bose, this version came as a revelation.
It is difficult to match the visual aesthetics of the Visva-Bharati version or the Rabindra Bharati variety. Dancers’ Guild’s interpretation, designed by Manjusri Chaki Sircar, stretched the Santiniketan version to reach a dynamic degree of athleticism. While all three remained faithful to the original script, Chittopat’s 140-minute piece attempts an intervention.
Its 50x30 feet space came alive as a pre-recorded version of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 started playing and performers in white apparel with thin white cloths in their hands glided down the arena in gay abandon. With this intercultural gesture, Taser Desh showed signs of a postmodern reading. The trapeze ropes became dynamic as the prince and his best friend made the most of their potential.
Tarunava Santra, the director, edited the text judiciously, highlighting parts and pieces, bringing in a song or two from Tagore’s oeuvre, rarely losing his focus. The moments of epiphany were, thus, properly accentuated. Furthermore, Taser Desh’s linkages with other Tagore plays, such as Achalayatan, Raktakarabi, and Phalguni, were established. However, attempts to extend Tagore’s vision with contemporary songs and words fell flat.
The music, mostly live, including moving pieces played on bamboo flute and tuneful singing by the young cast, added vigour to the performance. Special mention must be made of the Santra siblings — the sensational Rup who designed the music, besides playing the prince, and Megha who essayed multiple roles, including those of Patralekha and Haratani. Arpita Mukherjee also impressed.