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The Legacy lives on...

Rabindranath: The poet as actor and director

A Correspondent
Tagore's childhood in Jorashako (a locality of Kolkata) was culturally very opulent. The environment was enlivened with the performances of renowned maestros and talented jatra artistes. Even in his early years, Tagore developed a taste for jatra gaan and was inclined to act in plays.
Tagore began writing plays at a relatively young age and also managed to enact those written by children of his family. Except for one or two performances in his early years, most of the time he used to play the complex characters or the protagonists of his own plays. Simultaneously, he would take on the mantle of the director.
Tagore's early dramas featured only the artistes from his family. He also did excellent work grooming theatre activists.
“Mukto Kuntola", was among the first plays that Tagore launched in his boyhood. “Mukto Kuntola" had the touch of Western theatre and not that of jatra. Even though Tagore's thoughts about theatre somewhat changed later, there was a distinct influence of the West in his productions starting from “Balmiki Pratibha" (1881) to “Kal Mrigoya” (1882), “Rajao Rani" (1889) and “Bishorjan" (1890). As the Shakespearean style was followed in Tagore's plays, the stage decoration and the planning of scenes were also inspired by the Western style.
Later, Tagore thought of dropping redundancy from acting. It is this philosophy that was reflected in his works like “Sharodotshab” (1908) through the dance dramas that were staged during his later years. This can be termed as the 'Shantiniketan Phase' in the history of Tagore plays. At this phase, the plays produced by Tagore had simple but indicative symbols in stage decoration. The play "Raja” in 1910 was also performed in the same style.
There were several pragmatic reasons for promoting a new trend in theatre as exemplified in the 'Shantinikatan Phase'. Because of financial constraints, it was not possible to have expensive sets.
It is worth mentioning here that as there was no opportunity for female students at that time to pursue their study in Shantiniketan, male artistes used to play the female roles in plays like “Raja" or “Prayoshchitto".
The stage setting of "Falguni" (1916) or“Dakghar" (1917), staged in Kolkata, were a bit heavy but it helped deliver the theme of the play symbolically.
Although “Raja o Rani” and "Bishorjan” were staged following the Western style of theatre, later the adaptation of these two plays — “Tapoti" (1929) —revealed Tagore's new ideology of theatre. Symbolic features, dropping still background, continuous acting, creating characters like Bibek -all these elements clearly bear an indication of the very new theatre ideology.
Tagore always believed that it was jatra and not theatre, which was a strong weapon for mass communication.
Since 1921, in his seasonal musical drama and dance drama, Tagore began to give priority to the indigenous jatra style. This very style was pursued in staging "Shesh Barshan”, “Srabon Gatha", “Bashanto", “Shundor” and “Nataraj”.
Tagore was always fascinated by dance and admitted the invaluable role of this performing art in acting. Since “Kal Mrigoya” (1882), Tagore included little girls of his family, even for auxiliary characters like 'Bon Debi'. Tagore himself was adept in dancing. He featured efficiently as a dancer, as 'Thakurda' in “Raja”, 'Kabishekhar' and 'Andho Bauf in “Falguni” and 'BauT in "Dakghar”.
A harmonious bridge between music and dance was observed in musical drama like “Bashanto” (1923), “Shesh Barshan” (1925), “Shundor” (1925) “Nataraj” (1927) and “Geetotshab" (1931). Later on the subjects of plays were gradually presented in the form of dance.
Tagore's role was of the director-producer in the 'Dance Drama Phase'. The plays were rehearsed before him. He would often sit on the right side of the stage and at times took part in the music, reading and recitation.
Though less known as an actor and director in stage plays, Tagore's legacy lives on in the form of simple stage sets and the inclusion of dance in theatre.