Over six days beginning Saturday, the city will witness a rediscovery of Bertolt Brecht, the champion of epic theatre whose work is more relevant now than ever because it would question “this age and this polarisation”.
The Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) is hosting the festival till August 31 to mark the theatre practitioner’s 125th birth anniversary.
“Our country and most of the world are going through a kind of divisive polarisation. Brecht brought this in his playwriting and also philosophised it by looking at what it would be like if the entire world takes one side,” said the curator of the festival, Abhilash Pillai, theatre director and professor, School of Drama & Fine Arts, University of Calicut.
Pillai added: “Despite being so relevant, Brecht is being done the least. Drama institutions are possibly avoiding Brecht because
they feel teaching Brecht, with his Marxism-inspired philosophy, could mean raising questions about this age and this polarisation. But that is important today. His plays not just entertain but engage the audience so that they can raise questions.”
The festival has been named Breaking the Fourth Wall. Explaining the nomenclature, Pillai said: “Brecht said actors should not be completely submerged in their characters. Rather,
they should know how to question and provoke questions from the audience. That’s
why breaking the fourth wall is important.”
The wall in Berlin might have been demolished. “But the fourth wall remains as a symbol of otherness. You think your community is safe and the other community of migrants is the distant one, who you should be afraid of. The fourth wall has come back into our society very strongly,” he added.
Between the 70s and 90s, the highest number of Brecht plays was staged in India, probably more than Shakespeare.
“Brecht was staged in translation frequently in Bengal, Kerala and Maharashtra. The event is a confluence of theatre performances, workshops, installations and conversations, but primarily of thoughts and ideas,” said co-curator Sasikumar V.
The curators have contacted senior theatre practitioners who have imbued Brecht and applied his ideals — Amal Allana to Anuradha Kapur, M.K. Raina to Bibhas Chakraborty, Maya Krishna Rao to Rudrapasad Sengupta — to take part in discussions.
“The festival will not just pass on the essence of his memories and works to the next generation, but will address how Brechtian ideas and practices can be used in various fields,” said Tausif Rahman, head of performing arts at KCC.
Workshops will be held every morning for pre-registered participants by Allana, Krishna Rao, Kapur, Raina, S. Raghunandana and Pillai.
Two installations have come up — Death Mask by Hiran Mitra and Unveiling Disquiet by Pallavi Majumdar and Sanjib Barui.
An exhibition will feature pictures of Brecht productions across India from the collections of Nemai Ghosh, the National School of Drama and the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.
Suman Mukhopadhyay’s play Bechara BB will premiere before an invited audience at the University Institute Hall in College Square on August 27. “Brecht was a singer, a poet, a lyricist and a playwright. I have tried to present a spectrum of his creativity. The title is inspired by his autobiographical poem Of Poor BB. The production has excerpts of some of his plays relevant today, notably Mother Courage and Her Children, Measures Taken, Schweik in the Second World War and The Jewish Wife,” said Mukhopadhyay, adding that the play’s first public show will be on September 3 at Girish Mancha.
Other festival high points include songs from Brecht plays by Subhadeep Guha and a masterclass on Brecht’s music and acting by Anjan Dutt.
