‘To traditional practitioners, a woman taking on Yakshagana is an interesting expansion of the art form’

The much-acclaimed Kannada play Akshayambara, which merges contemporary theatre techniques with the traditional dance form of Yakshagana, was back in the city after a long break. The play’s protagonists are an experienced male actor essaying the role of Draupadi from Mahabharata wearing streevesha (i.e, a female disguise), and an amateur female performer, who takes on the role of the primary male adversary, Duryodhana. What is brought on stage, therefore, are the consequences of this deviation from the conventional norm of Yakshagana — a male dominated art form — and the constant contrasting power tussle between the two actors in the green room and the performance area. The evolution of the unconventional female narrativeThe play is a culmination of years of work undertaken by Sharanya Ramprakash, who went to interior Karnataka to learn the art form. Trained under Bannanje Sanjeeva Suvarna of the Udupi Yakshagana Kendra, and Subrahmanya Prasad Mudradi, Sharanya travelled with the troupe to perform in various parts of the state before eventually penning Akshayambara, a play that she has been performing with Prakash Cherkady since 2015. Has much changed with the production since its inception? “The script was a complete idea, and hence, that has remained the same, but the way the actors embody their roles and respond to a moment on stage has evolved. Staying true to the spirit of a Yakshagana performance, we also improvise, while staying within the confines of the plot line,” shares Sharanya.‘People who perform Yakshagana are very open and accepting’Yakshagana is an art form that is traditionally taken up by men, and Sharanya’s Akshayambara sees her playing a strong male lead in the narrative. The challenge to tradition, however, was welcomed by regional audiences and even traditional practitioners. “The people who perform Yakshagana are very open and accepting. When I approached my guru and asked him to teach me, an amateur, he immediately agreed. To them, a woman learning the form and furthering the narrative is an interesting expansion of the art,” says Sharanya.Regional vs metropolitan audience receptionSharanya feels that audiences in Udupi, Dharwad and deeper locales of Karnataka were insightful and more accepting than those in metropolises. “There is no pretense of niceties in the performance — the non-metro audience relate to that and connect to the form’s raunchy, folk nature. City audiences are slightly uncomfortable with idea of, say, characters acting like they are taking a leak on stage, or even the topic of menstruation,” Sharanya says. However, she feels that audiences have evolved. “Audiences have become more sensitive post #MeToo. On an earlier occasion, when Prakash’s character hits the female character for having has crossed the line, I remember audiences having laughed and applauded. They actually thought the man was right and the woman deserved it. Today, however, the audiences pause and think before they respond. There is more gravitas now,” she says.