'The Retreating World'
Synopsis, Director's Note
A Play from Little Jasmine Theatre Group

*

A scene from 'The Retreating World'' played at Maharaja Chandrakriti Auditorium (MCA) on 28 Jan 2014 :: Pix - Ashok Ningthoujam

'The Retreating World'
Little Jasmin

In a world where rage and bloodshed have become common place, where survival is key, how does the human spirit respond to act of violence? How do you counter despair? Can one resist through poetry?

Kirtina Kumar has created a tapestry of text: Last Tuesday by Donald Margulies. The Retreating World and an except from Between this Breath and you by Naomi Wallace and fragments of the 12th century poem conference of the Birds by Farid ud Din Attar.

The time is post-violence. The aftermath...

The first piece, by Donald Margulies, is called 'Last Tuesday' and takes place on a metro train. It could be anywhere, the characters are people we know. Something has happened. There has been a bomb blast. And yet the passengers seem absorbed in the dailyness of their lives. One couple is comparing schedules on their blackberries. One woman is reading a bok. One man is chatting on the phone with his girlfriend. It seems as if they wish to reject pain, hen a child enters, covered in blood. What will happen next? how will citizens respond?

The second piece, by Naomi Wallace is called. 'The Retreating World'. A single character on stage, Ali, is here to speak to us about his hobby - collecting pigeons. As he remembers his darling birds, we come to realize that the doesn't have them anymore. They were also collateral damage in a war. As was his grandmother. And his best friend.

Ali tries to use humour with his audience, but doesn't quite make it. There is always an undertow of something lost .. a memory? a grandmother? a best friend? Through the poetry of birds we deliberate on pain, in this evocative and poetic text, till the final visual ending.

Kirtana Kumar - Director of 'The Retreating World'

The Director's NOTE

I have been struggling with this piece for some years. Wanting to direct it. Thinking about it in the context of Muslim identity in India. Wanting to perform it. Thinking of androgyny. Searching fro a form and theatrical language....

Then I received Sarat Chabungam's letter from Manipur and this was the catalyst. I will do it. In the process I will find the form. I have just been at a fine workshop facilitated by a student of LISPA and Lecog technique. We will use Embodied Play. And Poetry. And Music.

We will make a play about the aftermath of violence and premier it in Imphal. I don't know much else. I know that I want to return to Manipur with something I can share with my sisters and brothers there. Something I hope they will respond to. I come with my heart in my hands. I come in humility.

The GROUP

We are a theatre company that has been in existence since 1994. We began our journey with a documentary play on the issue of childhood Sexual Abuse called "My Children who should be Running Thru Vast Open Spaces..." Over the years we have been driven by socialist and feminist instinct to create theatre that respond to our environment and the issues of our times. Many received critical acclaim, some were ignored, but we still keep going with that instinct.

Genet's the Maids' opened the 1st Ranga Shankara festival and then played at the Rangayana theatre Festival - Baharoopi. We devised in the Hour of God based on Sri Aurobindo' Savilri as a meditation on Life and Death. We received an IFA New Performance Grant to create The Wedding Party - a promenade theatre performance in a found space with lay people. This play explored gender roles, sexuality and language across class. We collaborated with Trestle Theatre (UK) to create Shakuntala a play about memory.

Dramaturgically we broke new ground with Shakuntala, using konokol, Kalaripayattu and live guitar as the language of performance.

More recently we have performed Ionesco's The Bald Soprano (Decan Herald Festival, Ranga Shankara and Jagriti) and Dario and Dario Fo's Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo (Jagriti Season 2012 closing play) We have been involved as dramaturg and choreographer on Schnawwl Theatre's (Germany) Das Lied von Rama - an exploration of the Ramayana.

And very successfully, we have been engaged by Schnawwl and Ranga Shankara on the Boy with a Suitcase which has been on tour for more than 3 years and performed mor than 70 shows.

See a full Photo Gallery of this play here