JOIN US‘Akshayambara’ challenges gender roles and stereotypes
Here’s an experimental Kannada play that uses both modern theatrical tools and the dance drama form of Yakshagana to create a contemporary narrative. ‘Akshayambara’ looks at issues of who is an ‘outsider’ and ‘insider, raises gender-related questions and provokes the audience to think beyond what they see on stage. It also strives to offer new perspectives on tradition, gender, power and morality. In an interview with Metrolife, the director Sharanya Ramprakash talks about the intent behind the play and the challenges involved in the same.
How do you use modern theatrical tools and the dance drama form of Yakshagana to create a contemporary narrative?
Akshayambara’s set includes a Yakshagana stage as well as a green room, both of which are onstage. Thus the play’s narrative moves between stage and greenroom and between vesha (costume) and vastava (reality). Thus, enabling the epic realities of the Yakshagana stage to meet the offstage contemporary realities of the greenroom. Through this devise, the play lays bare the politics of not just the epic but of contemporary realities, both onstage and offstage.
Is it easy for women to perform since it is largely a male-dominated space?
It is hard to navigate as a woman in a world that is rigged by patriarchy. But too men suffer in a patriarchy that enforces fixed binary ideas of gender and gender roles, and severely penalises any departure from its exacting standards. This not only hampers opportunities for advancement but denies us our freedom and personhood.
When tradition allows a man to play a woman will the same tradition accept the reverse?
This is one of the central questions of the performance around which the play is crafted. The stage, is after all a lie. When an actor dies on stage he or she does not really die, when we fly we do not really fly, so when a man says he is a woman, we accept it, but when a woman plays a man, this same suspension of disbelief must apply. But will tradition accept it? That is a question for which the answers are still evolving.
How tough is it for women to portray a man’s character?
In Yakshagana, men have been playing women’s roles for 800 years. Therefore, for the contrary to be accepted, the normalisation of such a visual plays an important part. A woman playing a man has to create history since it does not exist for her. In any case, the question is not just of ‘playing a man’ but of challenging stereotypes with nuance and bringing insight through representation, thus evolving an argument around gender.
What kind of socially relevant issues are brought up in the play?
One question that resonates with the current political climate is the notion of who is an ‘outsider’ and ‘insider.’ Other issues of ownership and representation are also brought up.
Since the play operates between the binaries of man and woman, tradition and modernity, urban and rural, it raises and complicates several ideas surrounding ownership, masculinity, power and morality — all of which are relevant in our times. We also try and explore whether seemingly opposing realities can coexist and strengthen each other.
Play details
Dramanon is staging ‘Akshayambara’ in Kannada (with English subtitles) on January 24, 7.30 pm at Ranga Shankara. The 90-minute play is written and directed by Sharanya Ramprakash. Tickets priced at Rs 150 are available on www.bookmyshow.com