Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Aug 21: ‘Fading Memoirs’, a play in English staged by Experimental Moving Images and Theatre Association (XMITA) Srinagar, came as whiff of fresh air in the otherwise run of the mill artistic scene of the Jammu and Kashmir where most of the theatre groups are happy to mount productions based on time-tested and ‘safe’ formats of presentation.
Today play directed and designed by Arshad Mushtaq, which marked the opening of maiden five-day long State Theatre Festival, being organized by J&K Cultural Academy, at the Abhinav Theatre, here today, emerged as a poignant rendering of the pain and suffering of the common citizens in the wake of imbroglio to which the Valley has been subjected to in past decades.
Unlike the violent means adapted by those who have taken to the gun and the bloodshed, or the double-faced politicians and self-styled leaders, a serious artist engaged in the portrayal of contemporary sociocultural and psychological conditions which scar the psyche of the populace, searches for innovation and experimentation in his expressions.
Therefore, Fading Memoirs is a welcome creative effort where the director has successfully experimented with the both content as well as the form. Instead of a conventional script as a piece of prose with a linear narrative, the play is a collage of poems of 19 poets including mystics like Nund Rishi, T. S. Eliot, Mahmud Darvaish, Faiz A Faiz, Aga Shahid Ali, Rafeef Zehdah, Rasa Javidhani and others. And to invoke the feelings and emotions of the poetry spoken in English in a slow pace with stress upon its subtle import, the use of a musical format with a blend of folk emerged as a befitting medium. The use of contemporary Immersive Theatre was also a refreshing aspect of the production design.
The artistically designed multi-level set, culture specific as well as abstract props, along with background score, and sounds wherein audio had the corporealness and starkness of a visual encounter-all fitted in as cogs in the artistic sweep of the play that was also a tribute to the poets and story tellers, who witness, remember and reflect whatever happens in the society.
Notwithstanding the technical shortcoming where many a times the loudness of the background sound almost drowned the spoken words, today productions did leave a great impact on the audience. If the couplets spoken by the actors could simultaneously appear as text on a screen, it would be great service to brilliant native poets writing in English like Aga Shahid Ali who despite internationally acclaimed remain unsung in J&K.
The actors were Yousuf Shahnawaz, Basarat Hussain, Asif Amin, Raja Imtiyaz, with Neha Langeh, Tavleen Kaur, Shubham Singh, Sandeep Manhas, Samdish Kumar.
Priya Sethi, MoS, Education, was the chief guest at the inaugural show of the State Theatre festival in which award winning play from three regions of the J&K are going to be staged. Aziz Hazani, Secretary Cultural Academy, and the brain behind the State Theatre Festival, and Prof Rita Jatinder were also present on the occasion.
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