*Parable of the Post Office fragments: an extract from a full length
production *
*in association with Prakriti Foundation-Chennai *

dedicated to the 150th anniversary celebration of Rabindranath Tagore..

Text: Rabindranath Tagore

Directed and designed by Parnab Mukherjee

Time: 8.5 minutes without any intermission

Synopsis:

In a range that would include about 2,230 songs and eight novels/four
novellas and numerous letters, Tagore's performance text holds a special
significance in the history of theatre. His journey began when he was
sixteen and played the lead Jyotirindranath's adaptation of Moliere's
celebratd Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. His fist tryst with a theatre
performance piece was B*almiki Pratibha* (The Genius of Valmiki) shown in
salon/intimate setting in Tagore's own house. In 1890 he wrote
*Visarjan*(Sacrifice)and in 1911-1912, he came up with the classic
*Dakghar* (The Post Office) both in Bangla and in an English translation
which he carefully supervised.
During World War II (specifically on July 18, 1942), Polish educator and
doctor, Janusz Korczak directed the orphans of the Warsaw ghetto in a moving
performance of Dakghar before they were moved to Trebelinka concentration
camp. Mahatma Gandhi was moved by Dakghar and Andre Gide read the French
version on radio as World War II clouds were looming large. Dakghar received
rave reviews in Berlin, Paris and Irish theatre during Tagore's lifetime and
interestingly on October 2008 has been commemorated in a stamp by the
Department of Posts in Bangalore.
Amal, a terminally ill kid standing on the edge of death is stuck in a
closed room. Sitting inside, he imagines the democracy of open spaces, of
the world that he cannot access, the possibility of a king's arrival and the
indefatigueable urge to learn from everybody passing by the details of life.
Finally, the royal physician carries a letter from the King which eases the
child. Does he die or moves to another domain?
Using Aga Shahid Ali's Country Without a Post Office and T.S. Eliot's
Journey of the Magi (which Tagore translated in Bangla), the performance
creates a haunting interpretation of Tagore's text. The play deals with the
core issue of what dies within us before we actually die. Using installation
as a metaphor and unrelenting images through puppets and video fragments
that range from Dantewada to philosopher Zizek, the performance searches for
the version of utopia that is neither downloadable nor steeped in some clever praxis.
Amal, of the Dakghar, lives to fight another day.