It was only through the process of creating and directing ‘Nidravatwam’ that theatre artist Nimmy Raphael understood the true meaning of Veenapani Chawla’s vision that her team at Adishakti must be ‘autodidactic’.
“Veenapani wanted the performer to have the confidence to create,” says Ms. Raphael. This meant that the actor not just learns to direct, but acts in their own play. ‘Nidravatwam,’ created for the Ramayana festival in 2009, examines an imagined conversation between Kumbakarna and Lakshmana from the epic on the boons they have received of sleep and wakefulness respectively. The process of directing and acting in her own play has helped Ms. Raphael understand her characters better, she says. “You are dependent only on yourself. The experience helps one take responsibility, and own what you are doing. As actors, we do not take on such a role. As a single actor on stage, you feel responsible for the whole space,” she says.
Ms. Raphael was drawn to the characters of Kumbakarna and Lakshmana as she wanted to bring to the stage the voice of minor characters.
“The minor characters often have no control over what happens to them. Their place is taken for granted and the conflicts reflect power equations in real life,” she says. The play, which has travelled across India and been to Korea as well, now travels to Pune for the Prayatna Film and Dance festival on April 27.
