Intro being staged at Gyan Manch. Picture by Rashbehari Das

Prior to its presentation of Intro at the Exchange Festival 2009 in Stirling, Scotland, on July 9, Tin Can offered a taste of the revamped play at Gyan Manch in back-to-back productions last week, in association with t2. The new Intro has grown with all that its creators have imbibed since its birth in 2006. Intro is directed by Soumyak Kanti De Biswas and produced by Tanaji Dasgupta.

Essentially a commentary on Calcutta, Intro presents a series of images to consolidate its social statement. Presented through the eyes of a child/puppet, Halla, the play offers apparently random sequences as seen from his balcony as he gazes wide-eyed into a city lane.

These sequences morph and often inter-change actors, as Halla watches two fighters (played by Sumeet Thakur and Shadab Kamal) lunging at each other, who are then visualised as boxers, only to reappear later as Macbeth and Macduff, like a refrain. Other characters that populate the lane-world of Halla include a drunk garbage man (played by Tanaji), the Dirt King (played by Anubrata Basu), a newspaper delivery boy (played by Dhruv Mookerji) and a rather neurotic, somewhat tyrannical angel (played by Meghna Mukerjee) quoting Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. The underlying emotion is of a return; to emotions, to a hometown, to familiar circumstances. Despite the challenges and the hardships that it presents, the essence is to be resilient, to “ud-just!” in every sphere of life.

“The lean muscularity of Intro reminded me of Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I’d want every Calcuttan to watch this nerve-tingling production,” said an effusive Barun Chanda. “I’m a huge Tin Can fan, and I was floored by their last production Video, which I liked more. But in terms of form, stagecraft, innovation and performance, Intro was sheer brilliance,” said actor Parambrata Chatterjee.

“Intro is slickly designed, and the sound design stands out,” felt Naveen Kishore, who also lauded the “energy level of the performers, right from the foyer”. The live percussion soundscape which began, ended and heightened the drama of the scenes (courtesy Pink Noise drummer Jivraj Singh), Ankit Gandhi Lall’s impeccable treatment of recorded sounds and lights by Joyraaj Bhatacharjee created the aura which captured the Intro mood. The background score included Radiohead, The Raconteurs and Bill Bruford. The stage design, which included posters from Bengali movies, political streamers, an STD/ISD/PCO sign-board and even a khatiya, worked as a collage of pop art with the costumes, designed by Roshni Bose.

The accompanying two-day youth arts festival in the foyer of Gyan Manch brought together performers from the fields of music, dance, arts and photography. It saw school-goers dressed up as Dirt from the play, masked dance performances and Tin Can show-reels on loop.