And The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter

The Sutradhar School Of Acting is presenting a 3-piece solo, And The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter - a performance trilogy on identities, directed and performed in English by Parnab Mukherjee, based on text by Mahasveta Devi, and produced by Best Of Kolkata Campus, at the Saptaparni Amphitheater, on 15th July.

Using site-specific installation techniques, the play weaves in real-life narratives and play with a sub-text that is testimony to the times we live in. Breast Giver is a text of an Adivasi woman coming to terms with reality. A reality where the body has more eyes than necessary. Is Jashoda merely a body, a mother, an idea of being oppressed or a dream? Mahasveta Devi explores this idea in a hard-hitting short story. The director-performer does a one-woman play exploring the socio-political fabric of the circumstances in a bare space.

The tale is about the exploitation of a woman, but more than that, the rampant globalisation of set stereotypes. In that realm of disturbance lies the true conscience of our social questioning. With myriad uses of body, pitch, off-bass voice, installation, puppetry and body-as-a-live sculpture technique, this performance is specifically designed for an interactive ambience with the audience. The audience here is a reference point to bounce the script off.

The second story is that of a woman who becomes the "object" of a photographer's project. In the course of time, the photographer becomes engrossed in his life. When he comes back to revisit the "object" of the shoot, the woman has been terribly wronged. Using a series of performance metaphors, this short, sharp piece attempts to challenge your art-related-viewpoints. The play rips apart narrative techniques, shredding the dialectics of the diaspora, and what emerges is a reaction.

The third and the last piece is on a man on the verge of committing suicide. And at the last moment he changes his mind. This is a probe into the political and ideological loneliness that grips us.

Parnab Mukherjee is a media analyst, workshop facilitator and creative mentor. He divides his time between Delhi, Kolkata and the Darjeeling hills. Currently a consultant with a publishing journal, Parnab has earlier worked for a sports fortnightly, an English daily and a Bengali daily.

He is an acclaimed authority on Badal Sircar's theater. He is also considered a leading light in alternative theater in the country, having directed more than 50 productions of performance texts including 3 international collaborations.

He has also performed 10 full length solos which include an acclaimed River series of plays on trafficking, HIV and segregation, and FootHills to Hills - a series of plays with Darjeeling as the living inspiration.

Best Of Kolkata Campus has completed 15 years of doing focussed campus theater in found spaces. It has produced a number of young theatre workers who are active in the cultural arena. It is a loosely formed collective of a bunch of individuals who believe that theater is an important and independent tool of dissent outside the ambit of party politics.

Some of the most memorable productions of the group include Hamlet Machine, Antigone, Raktakarabi - An Urban Sound Opera, Bhul Rasta, Kasper, They Also Work and And The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter. The current production of the group is a response to the Nandigram violence in West Bengal - the collective has adapted Tagore's acclaimed Dakghar (Post Office).

Please contact Vinay at 98480-52541 or Sandeep at 98852-37887 for further details.