Breaking the fourth wall: storytelling performance that digs under your skin
Kadhaigal Kaanalam 2.0, a collection of six short storytelling performances by six different theatre artistes from the city is set to take place on December 16 and 17. Organised by Theatrekaran, it will take place at IDAM, in Kodambakkam, at 5 pm and 7.30 pm. Excerpts of an interview of two of the artists — Roshan VG and S Pravin Kumar.
Roshan VG (L) S PRAVIN KUMAR (R)
CHENNAI: For Roshan VG, who loves the underlying warmth of delicately-elegant roses, seeing it on his dead mother was rather gut-wrenching. “It was the evening of 25 July 2013, when I returned home after my daily football practice, that I saw a bustle of people around my home. I knew what that meant. I wasn’t ready to accept it yet,” says Roshan.
Hailing from Dindigul district, the 25-year-old freelance graphic designer is also a theatre artiste for Theatrekaran, a city based theatre troupe. Roshan, eagerly anticipating his 26th birthday, seeking inner strength, chronicles the three months before he lost his mother to terminal breast cancer.
Being a National level football player, it was one such day when he got home, exhausted and weary, asking his mother for his staple evening snack. “I don’t think the dish has a name. It had a banana, sprinkled with sugar, and fried between two pieces of bread. Let’s call it my mothers banana sandwich,” laughs Roshan.
A childhood picture of Roshan with his mother
“I had once found a strand of her hair in the sandwich. I also saw my mother with a black scarf, covering her head. When I asked her to remove it, I was astounded to see her bald. I knew then that she was ailing,” narrates the artiste, who was 15 years old back then.
He vividly remembers his mother’s agony having one breast removed, the other blackened, and her conversations with his father.
“I would hate seeing my relatives and neighbours come home and see my mother so vulnerable. She used to ask me to sleep beside her at night, but I would not go close to her. She had also asked my father to remarry as she believed her days were numbered,” recounts Roshan, whose father stayed alongside his mother till her last.
The story also touches upon his specially-abled younger brother who suffers from Delayed Milestone and his tender mind running around-playing while his mother lay dead before her final rites.
“I am dedicating this performance to my late mother, a day before my birthday. I want people to know how much it can mean to somebody if you care for them when they are still around. It is also with a hope that I get to move on to the next phase of my life after sharing this part of my reality,” adds Roshan.
The story which the 26-year-old AR caller delineates, has a lot to do with his reality, and little to his young visionary mind, which still seeks out answers to his father’s past.
‘What did my father do during his 28 days in custody’? Is a question that Pravin has, right from when he was 12. His mother passing away at a young age made him depend on his father and his aunt, who told him very little about his father.
“He was a financier who at the time was in huge debt. Seeing cops swamp my home when I was in class six was frightening,” elucidates Pravin, who is also a theatre artiste at Theatrekaran.
He had witnessed his father’s extreme helplessness. Feeble himself, he was admitted to a hostel, far from his house, which was home, no more. “I would see him rushing to hide in places around our house- in our mango and coconut farms whenever there was a ring at the door,” the artiste adds.
Pravin with his father and younger sister
Twiddling his thumb, awaiting for his father to take him back home, with plans for his summer break, Pravin was left alone where he learned about his father’s arrest by the ‘bad guys’ in uniform, which was what his childlike mind could perceive.
“After one and half years of hiding, my father finally surrendered and was kept in custody for 28 days. As his son, I am still inquisitive to know what happened to his work which got him in the situation of debt and how he managed to hide for a long time,” explains Pravin.
The story of his father is something which the theatre artiste wants people to know. “In this story, I am a kid who narrates the glimpses of his father’s world, a kid who now sees his father in a new light. It is also about a father’s warmth, and his attempts to keep his son safe, through his hardships.
Pravin’s story will end with a reckoning dubiety of whether his curiosity to know his father’s life will ever be fulfilled or is there more for him to explore.
