Lankan play adds flavour to Assam forest-clearing theatre festival

Under the Sal Tree, an initiative to preserve the Rabha tribal drama form, has been organised since 2008

A play from Sri Lanka, reflecting the crisis the country is undergoing, added flavour to a tribal theatre form being celebrated annually since 2008 in a spherical sal forest clearing, in western Assam’s Goalpara district, said a report published by The Hindu yesterday.

The Hindu report filed from Guwahati said that the three-day Under the Sal Tree festival is organised mid-December in the district’s Rampur village by Badungduppa, a theatre group of the Rabha ethnic community. It primarily showcases the traditional tribal open-air theatre that relies more on music and expressions, than lengthy dialogues.Theatre groups from Bangladesh, Brazil, Poland and South Korea have performed in previous editions of the festival.

Anasuya Subhasinghe’s Salt Theatre Company (STC) is the first from an island-nation to participate in the open-air festival. The company based in Sri Lanka’s Angoda performed ‘My Sweet Rotten Heritance’ on Friday, the second day of the 13th edition of the community-driven festival.She said the festival had given her group a break from the crisis Sri Lanka had been facing since the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was drawn to this festival after getting photos of the open-air ambience online,” she said.

‘My Sweet Rotten Heritance’, the debut theatrical endeavour of STC, is based on the “extraordinary world” of Kolam, a dance-drama of rural Sri Lanka where the actors wear masks and costumes and perform with mime, dance and some dialogue.

“In the play, the past meets the present where strangely- familiar narratives unfold with bittersweet encounters. The play emerges as an attempt to explore the pertinence of Kolam beyond its moribund, fixed repertoire in an effort to reimagine the form as a living, evolving performance practice,” Subhasinghe, the scriptwriter and director of the play, said.

The festival, inaugurated by renowned writer and theatre personality R. Kaaleeswaran, began on Thursday with ‘Rishi Jolongka’, a play in the Rabha language performed by the members of Badungduppa Kalakendra. Madan Rabha, the managing director of the Badungduppa group, scripted the play, based on a folk hero of the tribe.

What sets Under the Sal Tree apart is its natural setting without the use of artificial lighting or audio system.The festival was started by Sukracharya Rabha, the founder of Badungduppa, in 2008. He sought to underline the importance of theatre in the midst of nature.

The other plays staged at Rampur were ‘Alor Gaan’ (Song of Light) by the Maharashtra-based Tiny Tales Theatre Company in Bengali and Marathi, ‘Atho Hidimba Katha’ by the West Bengal-based Birati Samuho Performers’ Collective in Bengali, and Erendira’s `Metamorphosis’ by the Assam-based AANKA Creative Line in Assamese.