Sunil Shanbag's play ‘The Horse' blends satire and comedy

Mint

4 days ago

Over 20 actors—all on stage together at times—are in sync relaying the chaos that comes with a wild albeit deeply political satire. Music interludes elevate the crowd scenes or craft moments of intimacy and idiocy around a horse. The horse is called Incitatus and has Rome—and specifically its notorious emperor Caligula (Akash Khurana)—in a tizzy. After all, no one's ever seen an animal so magnificent. The last in Aadyam Theatre's Season 7 is a play by veteran director Sunil Shanbag featuring horse heads and halters too.
Shanbag first read Hungarian playwright Julius Hay's The Horse in the 1980s. It was one of three in a collection of Eastern European plays published by Penguin. The other two were by noted Czech writers Vaclav Havel and Christy Rozek. 'It was a time when there was a fair interest in Eastern European plays. Satyadev Dubey had already done Rozek. Anmol Vellani had done Vaclav Havel. Marathi playwright Vrindavan Dandavate had travelled to Eastern Europe. Mahesh Elkunchwar had spent time in Eastern Europe," recalls Shanbag.
He remembers being 'delighted" when he read it, but was aware that it wasn't possible to mount a production of such scale at the time. The play stayed with him and cropped up during workshops and readings at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).
'On further reading, I found out that Hay was a contemporary of Bertolt Brecht. While both were interested in the theatre of ideas, they had differing opinions about the nature of theatre," he says. When the time came to do a play for Aadyam, Shanbag recalled The Horse for its inherent scale and satire. Then came the task of acquiring a copy of the play and requesting permission from Peter Hay, the son of the author and the translator of The Horse.
The play begins with a scene at the tavern—a young man, Selanus (Neil Bhoopalam), on his first day in Rome; emperor Caligula in disguise; and a coterie are playing a game of dice. Selanus has lost it all with nothing left to wager but his horse, the mighty Incitatus. Caligula is so taken by the animal that he will go to great lengths to acquire it. With erratic ideas and a God complex, Caligula passes decree after decree, including one to erase every other decree. Another such is the appointment of Incitatus as the Consul of Rome. And the revered Consul must eventually find a suitable bride. There's a love story somewhere in this mix. There's also a donkey and a man pretending to be a horse.
The satirical play is large and loud. Shanbag didn't set out to do a comedy but believes it can make complex ideas accessible to an audience. 'Comedy is perhaps the most difficult form of theatre. It must come with comic skills, comic timing and a sense of fun and joy. This play has an additional challenge of an underlayer of satire," he says, adding that it's been a fascinating journey for him and the cast. 'We don't get to do comedy often. It's not looked upon as serious enough," he says.
The play—first staged in 1965—is over half a century old but Shanbag believes that satire with a certain depth of ideas resonates with the contemporary regardless of when it was written. 'Besides, history has patterns," he says. 'There are some common themes—the seduction of a population with an idea, the abandonment of rationality and blind faith—that are all relevant today," he adds.
As for scale, Shanbag finds it both daunting and thrilling. Daunting for the planning (eight months) and the organisation that it takes to bring a 20-member cast together in a rehearsal room, and thrilling for the ability to perform to an 800-member audience.
'I don't think we get enough opportunities to do that. It's lovely to perform in intimate spaces but the thrill of 800 people watching and laughing is quite something. I believe that with our kind of theatre, we should not surrender or abandon mainstream spaces. We should seize every opportunity to occupy them," he says.
The scale also allows him to bring in skilled collaborators like Kaizad Gherda for music, and Shampa Gopikrishna and Bertwin D'Souza for choreography. This, in addition to a vibrant cast which includes senior actor and co-founder of Shanbag's Arpana Theatre Akash Khurana. The two have reunited for a production after three decades, and Khurana portrays the maniacal Caligula with rare charm.
While Shanbag's preoccupation with the theatre of ideas has always been evident (his last production was Utpal Dutt's Barricade), he believes comedy is as valid as any other form. He hopes the audience takes a moment to reflect amid laughter.
'That's what theatre can do—hold a mirror and help you reflect a little. In this case, it is through laughter and the absurdity of the situation. All comedy relies on the ability of people to laugh at themselves," he says. 'I want people to have an entertaining and stimulating evening. For me, that's the perfect definition of an evening at the theatre."
On 9 August, 7.30pm, and 10 August, 4pm and 7.30pm at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, Mumbai. On 6-7 September at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi
Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai-based culture writer.