A day with Ougree Theatre

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By: Oinam Anand *

While the world is observing May Day last Monday, it was a special day for a theatrical unit of Manipur.

Ougree Theatre Repertory, Manipur observed 25th year of its existence this day in a very different manner. The Silver Jubilee Celebration of this theatre unit on that day was a unique because it was observed in an extraordinary simple way in an outdoor locale.

It was a fulfilment of a long cherished desire for the president and director of this Theatre Unit Ranabir Mangang as he always wanted to do something in a different style and the day was remarkable in two ways not only for the theatre unit but also for the theatre lovers of Manipur. The two remarkable things were first, the choice of location for the function and second, the subject matter of the symposium on the day.

Whenever there is a symposium, seminar or discussion, the venue is concentrated mainly in the Imphal city, a city suffocated with noise and compounded with traffic jam.

For discussion and debate relating to tricky political and social problems, it requires a place where men converge but for creative artist, art lovers, poets and critics a surrounding far from maddening crowd, amidst the scenic beauty of nature is more suited where ideas can be exchanged free from trammels of precision.

About the choice of the location for the function, Ranabir Mangang repeatedly expressed his longing for the silent surroundings and he was always on the look out for a place where the delegates can enjoy the beauty of nature plus the facility for providing a small hall for the discussion and a space for arranging feast for the 40/50 delegates. Chingoi Baruni becomes the automatic choice because it serves both the purpose.

Twelve or thirteen kilometres from Imphal down the Imphal-Takhel Sanjenbam road popularly known as Tinsid Road, this hill or this small mountain range feature with the relic of the old history of Manipur. Situated at the heart of Manipur valley, it was in existence from before 300 BC as the legends says and as some historians put it.

A mountain overlooking the Imphal city it is a pilgrim centre and attracts thousands of devotees on the 28th day of Lamda (March). It offers a pleasant view of the surroundings. Beautiful hill shrubs, pine trees growing symmetrically and charming natural beauty give the place a saintly solemnity.

It is in the foot of the mountain beside the Chingoi river, the silver jubilee function of Ougree Theatre Repertory was celebrated.

The function was divided into two sessions Pre-lunch and post-lunch. The symposiums in both the session were focused on the productions of Manipur Theatre units in 2005. Rajmani Ayekpam and Budha Chingtham were the resource persons. Rajmani Ayekpam presented his paper focusing on the scripts in the pre-lunch session and Budha Chingtham focusing on the style of the theatre products of 2005.

Dr Lamabam Gojendra and Dr N Premchand were the moderators of the two sessions respectively. Among the dignitaries, M Raghumani, Manager MFDC, Th Manimacha, renown Nat Sankritan Singer W Amumacha, social worker and Thaninleima, lady NSD Graduate and Director were the prominent personalities present in the function.

The key note address was given by Ranabir Mangang and then Rajmani read out his paper and discussion continued. It continued in a cordial atmosphere but serious in tone with delegates expressing their views on the topic with supplements and questions.

Both the papers of Rajmani and Budha encompassed almost all the plays produced and staged in the year 2005 as a part of premiere show or as a part of festival. Almost 18 productions were analysed, each play in a nutshell in their respective view points.

Drama is the earliest of all the imitative arts. The origin of Drama has always been deeply rooted in the religious instincts of mankind. It is agreed that Drama or stage play in Manipur had its origin from the pre-historic age. The ancient drama never lost its kinship with the religious rituals and ceremonies of 'Lai Haraoba'.

But it was only from 1902 that records were available for research purposes and thus 1902 became the foundation year for theatre in Manipur. Unfortunately, as we belong to a group of people who seldom care for record keeping, it is very difficult to know the exact number of plays staged during the past ten years (not for 100 years!).

Manipur is a treasure house of plays. Many plays are stage in a year not only in the core of Imphal but also in the far remote areas and villages. But our theatre lovers and critics think only of the plays that concentrate in Imphal city and thus fail to keep records about the plays staged at the rural and far flung areas of Manipur.

No exhaustive research work or efforts have been made as yet regarding the evaluation and assimilation of theatre productions for the last 100 years.

Ougree Theatre Repertory takes a pioneer role in this direction. Ougree aims yearwise documentation of plays, study it, discuss it and at the same time keep it for future research.

This is a commendable effort on the part of the Theatre group on its silver Jubilee year.

Oinam Anand wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was webcasted on May 18th, 2006

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