The decade of 90s was known for the watershed transformation for the nation, the world as well as for entire humanity. Humanity, which was then riding on the wheels of “industrial revolution”, nurturing a dream of breaking the shambles of feudalism. But, by the dawn of 90s, the fortress of communism collapsed and the “industrial revolution” instead of being the messiah of liberation for the masses, turned out to be a dangerous, extremely exploitative, and inhumane enterprise of capitalism. This not only strengthened the feudalistic mentality, but by providing technological support to the scientific inventions turned the whole world into an exploited “village” through globalisation. In these trying times, India was not unaffected by the global processes.
At the time of such acute and humanitarian crisis, the people needed a platform which could give them an opportunity of expression. This among them, could take their own views to the masses! It led to the beginning of an artistic contemplation and the commencement of a new artistic tenet. This artistic principle exposed the exploitative and subjugatory “art for art sake” aesthetic illusion conspiracy of capitalism and made new artistic elements available to the world.
Manjul Bhardwaj
At this most crucial time, Theatre of Relevance’ was launched by its mentor Manjul Bharadwaj,
With a commitment to offer creative excellence to make the world more “Better & Humane”. This was very relevant to the context of the society and owed its social responsibility, not to Art just for the Art sake. It catered to human needs and provided a platform for expression, to explore itself as a medium of change/development. This came out from the ‘ limits of entertainment ‘ to a way of living.
Actually, ‘Theatre of Relevance” philosophy was initiated on August 12, 1992 and the challenge of implementation came to the fore. Capitalism has its own scheme of desecration. It covertly expands through religion, ignorance, nationalism, and orthodox traditions. The most pious principle of Indian constitution and the fundamental idea behind India’s existence, “secularism” was openly challenged and a frenzied mob of religious fundamentalists razed Babri Masjid (mosque) and the country, Mumbai was scorched in the fire of communal riots.
Ashwini Nandedkar
In such a tense atmosphere, the committed artists of ‘Theatre of Relevance’, risked their lives and performed the play ‘Door se kisi ne Awaaz di’, in every nook and corner of Mumbai. Recalling this movement, Manjul Bharadwaj says, “I still remember that day when I gave my artists a white kurta and told them, “This is our shroud”! But, all the artists filled the hatred of riots and the wounds with their art, love, and human warmth. Every such artist who has fulfilled their artistic obligation breaths in my heart! Though it was a small victory over the long struggle with exploitation, violence, and religious fundamentalism, it not only gave a sense of confidence to us and to our artistic principle but also gave the ‘Theatre of Relevance’ philosophy a mass acceptance.”
‘Theatre of Relevance’ faced all the challenges categorically. For instance, it fought a prolonged battle for child rights which continues to this day. ‘Theatre of Relevance’ is a laboratory for “a Theatre can bring constructive change”. You can touch, feel & measure those changes. “Mera Bachpan” play was enacted in more than 12000 variants and it transformed the lives of more than 50000 child labourers who are getting educated in schools today. Some of them are attending colleges today and some are professional theatre artists.
Byy connecting life to drama this group has awakened theatrical consciousness and has connected it to ‘masses’. It has trained the participants in its theatrical workshops about stage, relation between drama and life, theatrical writing, acting, directing, reviews, behind the scenes, stagecraft, costume and other such aspects and turned the artistic capabilities from being a divine gift to a scientific viewpoint. Over a period of 25 years more than 16 thousand theatre artists have participated in more than 1000 workshops. In short, “Theatre of Relevance” has broken the colonial and capitalist thinking of “art for art’s sake” with its substance and its meaningful experiments. It has ‘planted’ and expressed thousands of ‘theatrical concepts’. It has staged 28 plays more than 16,000 times.
It has challenged the authority of patriarchy through its more than half a dozen plays, “Dwand”, a play based on domestic violence; ‘Main Aurat Hoon’ play reverberated the voice of ‘half the population’ searching for its existence; and “ Laadli” made ‘gender selection’ an issue of national discussion.
Speaking on this occasion, manjul Bharadwaj says, “Theatre is an experience. In pure form it is that process which occurs in human’s humanitarian form & shape. This experience is unique, new in every person, every situation. It is not exactly 100 percent same, it keeps on varying. In this ‘time’ (duration) and Space (situational factors) are the dimensions and varying agents. In this agent is psyche (psychological). Therefore, theatre is not a stagnant art. According to ‘Theatre of Relevance’ artistic principle, a theatrical performance is audience and writer centric instead of being director and actor centric. This is because audience is the biggest and the strongest theatre artist. It made the issues and the concerns of the ‘audience’ its mission.”
Globalization has destroyed the biological and geographical diversity of the world and it continues to do so. Its face is squid. Against this obscenity, “Theatre of Relevance” made its global roar by performing the play”B-7″ and made its experiments in Germany in the year 2000. Against the privatization of humanity and natural resources it performed the play, “Drop by drop: water” in Europe in the year 2013. This play criticises the privatisation of water not only in India but in any part of the world. Water is “our natural and birth right”. A governance system blinded by privatization has to understand that a government which could not make drinking water available to its citizens should stop chanting the hollow phrases of rites, culture, and development.
In these challenging times, “Theatre of Relevance” is ensuring direct participation of youth in theatre. “We celebrate the impact of theatre on society. But, still audiences direct involvement in theatre is negligible. Being viewers, we are deeply affected by the staging or presentation of drama. But, a direct participation in drama (theatre) transforms our personality, thoughts and values,’ concludes Manjul Bharadwaj.