10 September, 2012

PVR Saket Market, 
at a pillar near the Chocolat shop, 7:30pm
Performers: Pali, Rudy, Shena
Observers: none (mistake - should have)
Audience No.: 30 - 40
FREEZE SCENES NARRATIVE, CYCLIC

We chose to do a series of six 'freeze scenes' - with a narrative in our heads - which we decided upon once we saw the location. We planned each scene roughly, and thought we would simply keep repeating the scenes, in sequence, while holding each freeze for at least 15 to 20 seconds
The scenes were: 1. Trying to push the pillar over, 2. Trying to lift the pillar, 3. Exhausted and resting, 4. Pleading with the pillar, 5. Pali gets stuck to the pillar, and R & S trying to pull him away, 6. Collapse and fall on the floor ... begin again.... and then again... etc.
(The narrative in our head was simply that we had lost a coin under the pillar and were trying to move the pillar to get it)

Audience:
Took a while to 'catch'. Heard someone say "Pillar hai, bhai, pillar hai!' when we were in the freeze trying to push it! Since there was no observer from our team, couldn't hear what people were saying during the action - but later we had some amazing interactions with people who had seen it, mentioned below under 'Our Comments' ... (it's becoming increasingly difficult to slot the observations into 'audience' and 'us'). At one point someone threw a coin near us, and then three or four coins.

We don't know what spirit the coins were thrown in. Perhaps it was a sarcastic comment. Perhaps it was a genuine payment for entertainment, 'Nautanki'-style. Maybe, as Pali later said, the performers' intent of finding a coin was simply realised! Hey, if audiences are free to interpret Art according to their inner stories, then performers, too, are free to interpret audiences' reactions! 'Explaining' either does away with all the possibilities.

When we bowed to each other - there was a handful of applause.

As we walked away, first a group of young men approached us asking us what we were doing... we asked them what they thought. They weren't quite sure what to make of it. In terms of the story one thought that we were doing 'puja' to the pillar - but then he wasn't sure because later he saw us trying to push the pillar, and that didn't fit in with his idea of what he thought the story was. We realised that he may have joined in at Scene 4 - so for him the cyclic story would perhaps be coloured by what he witnessed 'first'. (aha!)
Another young man, a model, also stopped us. He, too, was genuinely puzzled and had no real interpretation to give of what he had seen, nor did he seem interested in giving one. He figured it was some kind of theatre exercise, and asked us whether we were in an acting school ("Barry John?"). He also mentioned that it seemed we were doing something that might happen in France or Germany, and that it was rather 'abstract'...

Our comments:
Rudy: Oh my god. I feel I owe more to the people who are stopping to watch us. We are choosing to perform in a public space and we WANT people to stop and watch us - so we owe them something as performers. I don't want to leave them with a feeling of bewilderment, and of not quite 'getting it'. That would just alienate them and make them uncomfortable. Are we just being indulgent?
Pali: No, we're sharing our experiences of theatre. Theatre has meant so much to me, as a person, in my life - for me this is a sharing of something I love.
Shena: Owe more? Matlab? We had a narrative, we performed it quite well I thought (ahem..)
Rudy: But we only planned it ten seconds before show time...
ShenaPali: But we DO have at least 10 years each of theatre experience behind us - so it's ten seconds (and anyway it was more like 3 minutes okay!) backed by some solid experience. We crafted the scenes well, and aesthetically. We worked with some discipline. We weren't just doing random stuff...
Rudy: Ya, but.... OK - i don't care if people follow a clear narrative. That isn't what I'm getting at. But what we do ought to engage and hopefully move people in some way even if they (or we) are unable to articulate WHY.. - its like, sometimes I watch some contemporary stuff (okay, I'll say it... contemporary dance stuff) - and I'm like 'what the f?' 'What WAS that all about anyway?' The performance didn't affect me in any way and its just left me feeling stupid that I didn't 'get it' or that I just wasted my time.  Are we just subjecting people to ... what ARE we subjecting people to????

... good questions all.

What defines a 'good' performance? or Art? How much of the onus of the shared experience of a performance - shared by performers and audience - lies on the performers, and how much on the audience? Shena felt that any Art/Performance is capable of speaking - it just depends on who is ready, at which stage in their life, to listen. Rudy was vehemently opposed to this idea - ('WHAT? DO YOU MEAN AN ARTIST HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER? If the audience does not receive anything from a performance the only person accountable for that is the artist her/himself. We as performers CANNOT place that onus on the audience and say - "Delhi is not ready for this..." OR "They didn't get it because they are not used to watching this kind of stuff !"  )

We very sorely felt the lack of an 'observer' - (which is also why there are no performance pics of this event, also a sad fallout. In future - have an observer/documentation person fersure) - as the only two conversations we had with people certainly did seem to indicate that not only had people not been moved by what they saw, but that they were left feeling in a vague sense 'cheated' or incomplete.

So, feeling a little bewildered and incomplete ourselves, Pali said: "I'm hungry".
And we went to Lebanese Point for Falafel.

Here, we were fortunate to meet Bhagvan Das, owner of Lebanese Point and his staff person at the counter, Divender Singh. Both had seen the performance - and were excited and happy to talk to us about it. Mr. Das had thought that we were making a comment on Asim Trivedi (cartoonist recently charged with sedition) with the freeze in which Pali gets stuck to the pillar. Divender Singh had constructed his own narrative of the public putting someone on a pedestal and worshipping him, and then the System collapsing due to political corruption.

(... er... Rudy... what was that again?... who owes what to whom? who was it who first spoke about internal narratives? heh heh... TRUST!! TRUST in the process and in people and in performance! :) )

Bhagvan Das refused to let us pay for our Falafal roll and Pepsi - so we were Rs. 121/- and, very gratefully, a whole load of experience richer by the end of the evening.

L-R: Rudy, our Model friend, Bhagvan Das, Divendar Singh, Pali at LEBANESE POINT, Saket