Playwright's art staged to paint his tragic life

NEWDELHI: Four children on a patch of soil, digging with all their might for afather who will never return. The mammoth task is punctuated with interludes ofpulling each other's hair, teasing, squabbling, interlinking arms and limbs torock each other breathless. "These are our national orphans,'' thedirector of `Rest', Pawel Passini, informs the audience, as their wild eyes andcontorted faces are magnified via laser projections on the stage. Theextravagant visual technology of the play holds together a fragmented narrative,gathered from poems, letters and articles to tell the tale of Polish geniusStanislaw Wyspianski's children Helenka, Stas, Teodor and Mieciu.The play staged in Kamani auditorium on 9th January as part ofNational School of Drama's Bharat Rang Mahotsav is essentially a requiem, but inmultimedia. Wyspainski appears on the stage to talk to his children, tell themfairytales, only to be reminded by the director, time and again, that he is veryclose to death. The children cuddle a headless puppet symbolic of a father whois no longer there. Divergent elements laser beams, gossamer net frames, livemusic, a blue door painted with clouds (doorway to heaven?), bubbles andballoons make the story of loss and grieving a very contemporary one.Wyspainski, the 19th century poet, playwright, sculptor, painter andarchitect had often painted his kids in cherubic bliss, untouched by thetroubles of adult life. "One would imagine the children of Poland's mostcherished artist would grow up talented, beautiful, rich fortunate. Ironically,their lives were marred with one tragedy after another; ill health and neurosisfollowed them around, they were forgotten by a nation that revered theirfather,'' says Passini. `Rest' was also one of the first plays to bestaged on the internet in December 2007. "It was one of its kind where more than16,000 people logged on to watch it and even posted their comments on a liveblog,'' says Passini. Before the play was staged in Poland, Passini invitedparents to photograph their children in poses that were typical of Wyspainski."We imitated his style on an internet page. For the offline opening night, weheld a huge exhibition with all the pictures we had received,'' he elaborates.In Poland, the group Teatr Ladnia Nowa (Krakow), has also staged the play inspaces outside the auditorium old factories and notably, an abandoned churchthat became a whorehouse before the building fell to ruin."It's avery interactive, very physical piece,'' says 26-year-old Dominika Jarosz whoplays Wyspainski's son, Stas. The four actors who play pre-adolescent,hyperactive kids, are all young women in their 20s. "Our movements the pushingand pulling and frolicking around are not choreographed. Some of it isimprovised but a lot is from real life. Kids are vigorous in play.'' Theprojections splashed across the stage magnify the energetic movements.