Under the Sal Tree: Of theatre and trees, applause and admiration

Rampur (Goalpara), Dec 17: Continuous applause reverberated in the otherwise silent Sal forest as a 1,000-plus audience gave a standing ovation, and then there was a clamour among people to get a selfie with the actors.

The play was 'My Sweet Rotten Heritance' (English) by Salt Theatre Company from Sri Lanka.

Usually, such enthusiasm is seen only when a popular face from the cinema world takes to the stage, but then, things have always been different when it comes to the 'Under the Sal Tree', a unique celebration of theatre held, as the name suggests, inside a Sal forest which strictly eschews use of any artificial sound or light system.

"It was an amazing performance. The theme and the presentation was brilliant. It just made my day," said Rohan, 21, a college student who travelled around 135 kiloemtre from Guwahati to the venue.

'My Sweet Rotten Heritance' is one of the seven plays that were staged at the festival held every year during this time of the year. The Sri Lankan play was staged on Friday, the second day of the festival. The viewers were a good number of youngsters, mostly college students.

"I have attended several theatre festivals and watched plays from different countries and also from different states of India. This play from Sri Lanka is definitely one of the best I have ever watched," Rohan continued.

Veteran filmmaker and actor Sanjeev Hazarika was also present. "Spectacular. It was an incredible performance. The standing ovation they received meant everything," said Hazarika.

He also appreciated the theme of the play and admired their courage for being vocal.

About the play:

'My Sweet Rotten Heritance' is a political satire that attempts to reimagine this moribund Kolam (a popular Sinhalese dance-theatre tradition of Sri Lanka) practice beyond its 'fixed' repertoire, by introducing new masks and narratives familiar to the contemporary spectator. Interlacing political, historical and mythological accounts, and reinterpreting them in today's context, the play explores the performance ability of Kolamas, a 'living', 'evolving' performance practice.

The play was directed by Anasuya Subasinghe, a Sri Lankan academic in performance studies, a playwright, theatre practitioner, and film actor.

Overwhelmed at the warm response of the spectators, Subasinghe said: "It's great to perform here. You are one of the best audiences…"

Earlier, the play was once performed in Dibrugarh.

"There are similarities between Indian and Sri Lankan culture, so there is not much difficulty engaging with Indian audiences. It's great to perform here," said Jithendra Vidyapathy, one of the actors of the play who is a university lecturer in Sri Lanka.

The three-day festival began on Thursday with 'Rishi Jolongka', a play in Rabha language, by the troupe from Badungduppa. The play was scripted by Madan Rabha and directed by Dhananjay Rabha. Tiny Tales Theatre Company from Kolhapur in Maharashtra performed the Bengali/Marathi play 'Alor Gaan' (Song of Light) in the afternoon.

'Atho Hidimba Kotha' in Bengali from West Bengal, 'Erendira's Metamorphosis' in Assamese from Guwahati, 'Jhalkari' in Hindi from Mumbai and 'Pancho No Vesh' in Gujarati/Hindi from Ahmedabad were also performed during the festival.

Inaugurated almost two decades back by the Badungduppa Kalakendra, the unique style of theatre festival has been adopted by several other theatre groups across the country in the recent times only to affirm that Badungduppa has been able to make a strong impact on the general perception of theatre lovers over the years.

Spearheading the avant-garde movement of 'Hygiene Theatre' since its inception in 2008, the founder director Late Sukracharjya Rabha, one of the widely respected theatre personalities of the region, organised the theatre festival in the midst of nature to spread the message of the importance of co-existing with nature establishing a symbiotic relationship.

The festival concludes on Saturday.