Cancelled Raja Lear shows spark dispute

KOLKATA: The woes of King Lear seem to be never-ending. On May 22 last year, Suman Mukhopadhyay staged a show of his adaptation of ‘King Lear’ only to have to wait for close to six months to stage it again at Rabindra Sadan on November 5. While some attributed this long pause in staging the play to logistic problems, others smelt political bias at work.The shows of the Soumitra Chatterjee-starrer continued uninterrupted till May this year till it came to a screeching halt what with the director claiming that all June shows of the play have been cancelled.
Before Suman left for Shillong to shoot ‘Sesher Kabita’, his Facebook post read thus: “Nonetheless, Raja Lear shows cancelled in June. Unbelievable! At least, this decision is not FOR the people. All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?” That set tongues wagging. When we got in touch with Suman, he said: “‘Raja Lear’ is the first production of Minerva Repertory Theatre. My play is so much in demand and two shows on June 9 and June 10 were cancelled simply because the repertory has a new production is not palatable. I don’t think shows of a successful production should be cancelled this way simply because the stage needs to be free for rehearsals of another production.”
On Sunday, there was a show of the play that had to be cancelled because Soumitra Chatterjee was taken ill. “I had a nasty fall and injured myself at Girish Mancha recently. I had gone for a programme hosted by the Mukhomukhi theatre group where I tripped on electric wires and fell. I have been advised bed-rest for a week. Physiotherapy is going on. In place of Sunday’s show, they are trying to stage it on June 19. I don’t know about the other shows in June,” Soumitra said.
Though the veteran actor said he had no problems with the way the repertory has been functioning, other guest artistes of the play have a different version. Said Joyraj Bhattacharya, who used to play the role of the fool: “The way things were being conducted by the repertory left a lot to be desired. I have done plays with a lot many repertory theatres abroad. I know how it all functions there. But here, things are a lot unprofessional. No one from the repertory’s end has any accountability for this production. We had a show in Delhi for which I personally bought my flight tickets. I was assured that I would be reimbursed. But once I returned and asked about the reimbursement, I was told that I would be given the train fare. While in Delhi, there was no one from the repertory’s end to ensure that the likes of Soumitra Chatterjee got food on time. After the Delhi show, I decided to quit. Four shows were held after I quit where Sumanta Roy from the repertory played my role.”
Bimal Chakrabarty, who plays the role of Kent in the play, said: “Three and a half months ago, Suman and a few guest artistes who are attached to ‘RL’ had written a letter to the secretary of Minerva Natya Sanskriti Charcha Kendra, asking for enhancement of our honorarium, reimbursement of our airfare and conveyance charges. We had also requested the authorities to grant us an allowance for the renovation and refurbishment of the sets and costumes. But our letter didn’t even get any acknowledgment. We had been told that there would be shows in July, August and September. But now we are not sure if that is going to happen.”
Playwright Debesh Chattopadhyay, who directed ‘Debi Sarpomasta’ for this repertory and is a member of the advisory committee, however, doesn’t smell anything fishy in stalling both ‘DS’ and ‘RL’ in June. “Kaushik Chatterjee is staging D L Roy’s ‘Chandragupta’. It is the third repertory production. Since artistes from the repertory perform in all its productions, it’s only prudent to allow them to stage ‘Chandragupta’ in June independently. Kaushik is a new director and he needs time to settle down with his production. I’m told ‘DS’ will be staged again from July. My own experiences with the repertory have been very good barring the period of transition when a new party formed the government and there was confusion over who would helm the repertory. Now, we know that Minerva is an autonomous body and I’ve had no problems staging my play,” Debesh said.
Playwright Arpita Ghosh, who is a member of Minerva Natya Sanskriti Charcha Kendra, is peeved with the repeated ‘RL’ controversy. “Suman’s Facebook post smacks of insecurity. ‘RL’ is not Suman’s production. It is Minerva’s production and Suman must remember that he is not the only director of the repertory. We have a new play coming up and for that, the director needs time to rehearse with his unit before the production. Soumitra-da fell down and hurt himself and hence, Sunday’s show got cancelled. We can’t stage ‘RL’ on June 9 and 10 because we need the stage for rehearsals of ‘Chandragupta’. But then, we have planned to stage ‘RL’ on June 19. Subsequently, we will be staging it in Powai in July,” she said.
Ghosh is upset with what she calls Suman’s “unhealthy move” of maligning the government. “Why is it that Suman is the only one with problems all the time? ‘RL’ is our production and it runs successfully. A letter was written to us to increase the honorarium, but we couldn’t honour that. We had increased the honorarium for Soumitra-da from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 per show. The production cost of ‘RL’ is close to Rs 24 lakh. It’s very difficult to recover that cost and yet we are trying to make ends meet. Had Suman only used artistes from the repertory, the production cost wouldn’t have been so high. Issues are being raised about why airfare of some artistes weren’t reimbursed. We never made any commitments to reimburse the airfare. Suman himself spoke to the National School of Drama authorities for staging this show and also informed us about the discussions he had with them. We were never told that we would have to bear the cost of the airfare. Suddenly, after the show is over, we are being asked for reimbursement. That’s very unfair. This trend of using ‘RL’ as a dummy to malign the government has to stop. There are other directors and actors whose works we want to support. By making such allegations, Suman is only expressing his insecurity,” she said.
To this, Suman said from Shillong: “The airfare is a controversial zone. But if the actors have sent a letter, it’s only proper to send a reply even if it means telling us that the request can’t be honoured. Soumitra-da is unwell and June 3’s show has been rescheduled to June 19. Yes, we do have a show in July. But I don’t know why these things are being said about me being insecure. Why should I be insecure? Debesh’s ‘DS’ has been critically accepted too and I don’t like the fact that its shows have been stalled. If the repertory is talking about profit, why cancel shows of productions that are successful? The repertory must have planned their schedule in such a way that ‘RL’, ‘DS’ and this new play could be staged simultaneously.”