Reviews

Pulse (Summer, 2003, pp. 27-28)
"Play-ing with dance"
The Dance of the Drunken Monks
Bithika Chatterjuee

The Dance of the Drunken Monks is a work of ensemble theatre rendered through the imagination and physicality of an established Indian classical dance company. Monks features the three core dancers cum artistic directors of the company - Vidya Thirunarayan, Mira Balachandran and Stella Uppal-Subbiah - in collaboration with guest dancers P.T. Narendran and G. Narendran from India. Theatre director Phillip Zarrilli who was script editor and acting coach while Madurai G.S. Man and Karaikudi Nrishnamurthy, along with Saxophonist Iain Ballamy composed the music. Monks is an adaptation of the 7th century Mattavilasam, probably the first important dramatic work in Sanskrit from southern India and part of the traditional repertory of koodiyattam, likely the oldest theatre form of Kerala.

Uppal-Subbiah as the sutradhari (holder of the thread/secret etc.) introduces the play and the basic sentiments of farce. The farce revolves around the drunken antics of a couple of Shiva-worshipping monks - the iconic character, Kapali, and his woman, Devasoma - who go on drinking sprees and indulge in 'sensual pleasures' on temple grounds. Kapali uses a kapalam (skull) as 'his drinking goblet as well as his begging bowl. On a visit to the taverns in Kanchipuram, Kapali loses his skull-bowl and, with it, his 'identity'. The monks lament the loss and frantically search for the bowl. A Buddhist monk appears with his eating bowl and Kapali and Devasoma accuse him of stealing their kapalam. After a tussle, the Buddhist monk gives them his bowl and they realize their mistake. Then, Kukuraha, the mad dog that had stolen the bowl, returns it, and, the unlikely hero regains his identity. Everyone in the audience enjoyed the story.

Sankalpam has cleverly adapted the original text into a contemporary performance work, using bharatanatyam (the company's forte), movement vocabulary from kalarippayattu and some theatre conventions from kootiyattam . Thus, the main character speaks in Sanskrit and the other characters speak in the 'local' language - English. The performance of the farce is in the natyadharmi (stylized theatrical mode) appropriate to the theme - exaggerated movement and inflated speech delivery. The costumes, essentially bharatanatyam costumes recast without the conventional elaborateness, have a modern and traditional textural quality. Similarly, the storytelling uses both traditional and modern techniques ...

What I enjoyed most about the performance was its distilling of the social and human commentary from the original work.

Monks ... meaningfully exists on its own. A play within a play, it succeeds as performance by clearly presenting the process of transformation from performer into character and from one character into another. Balachandran as the 'senior artist hurt by the director' who then goes on to play Kukuraha is one of the many examples of these transformations and her hand gestured 'dog' abhinaya is an instance of excellent physical theatre. I was particularly impressed by Uppal-Subbiah's choreography to portray Thirunarayan's drunken double vision, the effect of 'soma' on her movements. Thirunarayan and Narendran were impressive in the imaginative use of their bodies, especially the use of their eyes and the stupor of their speech. That is performance indeed.


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