Woyzeck
Rangashankara these days has been staging the same old plays. So when we heard about a new play being staged, I was pretty excited even though it was a Tamil play and I understand nothing in that language. But yeah, having a friend who speaks that language helps.So on saturday evening,I tagged along with deponti to watch the Tamil version of the popular german play Woyzeck by the Koothu-p-Pattarai theatre group.
About the story, its about Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial town, is the father of an illegitimate child by his mistress Marie, who is a prostitute. Woyzeck earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for the Captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments conducted by the Doctor. As one of these experiments, the Doctor tells Woyzeck he must eat nothing but peas. It is obvious that Woyzeck's mental health is breaking down and he begins to experience a series of apocalyptic visions. Meanwhile, Marie grows tired of Woyzeck and turns her attentions to a handsome drum major.With his jealous suspicions growing, Woyzeck confronts the drum major, who beats him up and humiliates him. Finally, Woyzeck stabs Marie to death by a pond.
The play was interesting but disturbing at the same time.The performances were totally amazing and so were the costumes and the lighting.But,there were several things which I found totally disconnected. Never in the play,we get a feeling that Marie was tired of Woyzeck as mentioned in the brochure. It so happens that when Woyzeck and Marie were out in a fair, the drum major happens to see her and gets attracted to her. He then sends a message to her. Marie gets easily attracted to this man who says that she was fickle-minded.Secondly, in the last sequence all the soldiers come marching on to the stage with "Saare Jahaan Se Achcha" song in the background and the Indian flag displayed in the backdrop. This i find totally stupid since the play had nothing to do with patriotism as such. It was about a personal life of a soldier.
It was really nice of deponti to translate the lines for me throughout the play. Infact I didn't know that some comedy scene was in Malayalam until she told me about it. Thank you friend.All in all,it was a lovely evening :-)