‘Antharanga’: A play on death and life
Death is a silent truth when life is a loud lie
‘Antharanga’ is a Kannada adaptation of the 1895 play ‘Interior’ written by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. The play is directed by Shankar Venkateshwaran, a prominent theatre director in India. Antharanga is his latest production for the Ninasam theatre group from Karnataka. The play revolves around the theme of constant dispute between life and death. Even though life seems powerful it’s the harsh reality of death that wins. Life is controlled by fate which hangs on a string like puppets.
The story starts by introducing a family which includes a father, mother, daughter and son. And later two strangers enter who have come to inform the death of their daughter. They are trying to get enough courage to tell the family of the news before the procession of villagers arrives bearing the corpse of the daughter who has drowned.
The play takes the viewers to insights which lie beyond comprehension. The play exposes a slowly developing atmosphere, moving from light to dark set movement. The play made use of sophisticated and expressive use of light and several other atmospheric effects to inculcate the corresponding mood. The use of silence had a lot of in-depth philosophical and symbolic meaning in this play. The most moving factor about this play is the brilliant visual mood progression. It’s such a condensed play in which a brightly lit room is being invaded by death.
The background music is very emotional and melancholic which complements the mute eloquence of the actors. The movements are in such a way that it looks very static if the audience lacks proper concentration. The stage setting and props are very minimal. The stage is divided into two parts one which encompasses the bright lit domestic room and the foreground stage shows the people who have come to tell the family of the death of their daughter. It’s almost like a stage within a stage as life make sense in the domestic space of the stage but dark death awaits outside to intrude the silent space of the family. The audience is witnessing the subtle distance between life and death poised outside. The director was very successful in creating tension by showing strong contrast of anxiety between the characters outside the house and the silence and ignorance of the family inside the house.
The audience is able to see the family but not hear them allowing dreadful silence in between the family, unlike the loud exterior world. It symbolizes the fact that their life oscillates between the safety of the interior and the danger of the outside world. The play is a progression of frequent actions and pausing silence creating tension towards the disclosure of information which has been kept silent until the climax.
The costume and makeup of the family are very domestic and casual on the other hand the villagers have a dark and sombre outfit symbolizing death. Emotions and expressions play a significant role in this play apart from dialogue rendering. The family doesn’t have any dialogues instead they brilliantly conveyed it through mime and mute actions. On other hand, the villagers had dialogues rendered from backstage. The play reveals the tension silence can create sometimes which was a creative take on this particular theme.
