Mumbai’s theatre actors get physical on stage

Actions speak louder than words — taking a cue from this popular saying, a new form of storytelling, Physical Theatre, has emerged on Mumbai’s drama circuit. Deviating from text-driven and dialogue-oriented performances, it stands out due to its flexible and defined movements on stage. This overtly physical form is yet another addition to the many experimental theatre formats we’re seeing in city plays — blindfold, immersive food theatre, black box and mentalism, among others.
‘It allows me to explore the space between the old and new forms’
One of the reasons directors are drifting to physical theatre is due to its unique use of movements, the roots of which can be traced to traditional Indian martial art forms and contemporary dance moves.Says director Faezah Jalali, whose play Shikhandi uses a lot of physicality, “All theatre is physical. If you’re standing on stage in front of an audience, you are participating in a physical representation of something that is on a page. But in Shikhandi, we use traditional Indian art forms like koodiyattam from Kerala. We practised it for 10 days with a professional to understand the basics. We even went to Udupi to learn yakshagana. Being a story of the in-betweens, this format allowed me to explore a space, which mixes the traditional and contemporary.”
Theatre director Sujay Saple’s plays like This Is All There Is When There Is All This (TIATIWTIAT), Agent Provocateur, Moonfool and Unselfed don’t just have episodes of physicality, but are entirely movement-based. “I have nothing against realism, but I think this format is a lot more challenging. The stage is a place of imagination — it can be a lot more metaphorical, and not just literal. I got bored of furniture on stage, people talking, the beginning-middle-and-an-end narrative and simply, the sense of identifying with relatable characters. My actors operate as lexicons of metaphors and symbols. There are some portions of text but primarily, the moving body is the signifier,” he explains.
Actor-director Deepika Arwind, who plays multiple characters in No Rest In The Kingdom, says she opted for this format because she wants each character to inhabit a completely different body, breath, voice and vocabulary of gesture. “I worked a lot with my instinct of what may sit right in a particular character’s body,” she says.

‘If your body is trained, you will always have an advantage on stage’
Equating poetries to physical performance, where both are open to the audience’s interpretation, actor Arpit Singh, who has starred in Moonfool and Agent Provocateur, says, “Saying I love you and expressing it through your movements are two different things. Being a part of physical theatre has changed me both professionally as well as personally. In this format, there’s text as well as alignments of body. You move freely on stage and are more aware about the lighting, set, prop, music, audience and costumes.”
Actor Errol Rodrigues, who has been a part of physical theatre workshops, adds, “Even if we aren’t doing an out-and-out physical performance-based play, having done such a workshop certainly adds a dimension to existing content.” Yuki Ellias, who has acted and directed Elephant In The Room, states that any movement in the language of performance and form is a natural part of her theatre-making process. “Just standing on stage by itself is a physical act. You have to be aware, skilled and embody a physical presence always. There is no theatre without the body,” she says.
‘Theatre does not mean acrobatics’
Actors have to ensure that they are agile, since physical theatre requires flexibility. Shares Maithily Bhupatkar, an actress and contemporary dance, movements’ practitioner, “For any kind of work with the body, it is important to have physical discipline and training because you are going to generate material out of that.” Arpit has learnt plenty of rural forms of workouts like kushti, chhau (a semi-classical Indian dance with martial, tribal and folk origins from Orissa) and kalaripayattu in order to perform better. Deepika shares that though she isn’t trained in martial arts, she is making a concerted effort to learn kalaripayattu this year. However, Sujay advises that it’s not the only thing one should focus on. He says, “I feel all bodies can express. If you have an imagination, then your body will translate that. A lot of actors, when they hear physical performance, say, ‘Oh! I haven’t gone to the gym in months’ and I have to tell them that I am not going to make them do somersaults. Theatre doesn’t mean acrobatics; it’s articulating things in physical terms.”

‘Form and story must support each other’
At times, with a lot happening on stage, it could deter the point the play wants to put across. How does one consciously avoid it? Says Faezah, “At every point, you have to ask yourself: ‘Is this too much? Is this enough?’ And then, be honest to take out things that don’t fit.”Adds Yuki, “You have to choose a format that best fits the story. If clowning or mime works best for my narrative, then I will bring masks and stylised physical work into the process. If the form is dance-theatre, I will choreograph elaborate sequences to express the emotions of the characters. The form and story must support each other.”