Which side are you on?

Atul Kumar’s The Company Theatre brings Taking Sides to Ranga Shankara this weekend, where the audience will be questioned about their beliefs in politics

Falah Faisal

With the rise of the right-wing in India in the last decade, its comparisons are being made to the Nazi Germany, what with the persecution of minorities and the RSS said to be drawing inspiration directly from the likes of Hitler and Mussolini.

Many mainstream artistes have been criticised for staying mum on such issues or eve taking the side of the ruling party. That is not the case with theatre veteran Atul Kumar, who will be performing Ronald Harwood’s play Taking Sides this weekend in Ranga Shankara.

“All of us artistes are struggling in terms of where we stand morally and politically. We have to ask ourselves how involved we should be with just making art. Are we happy being in our echo chambers or should we put more on the line and question what’s happening around us in our art? How does it affect aesthetics and ethics of our art?” says the actor who has been performing for nearly three decades, having started at the age of 15.

Taking Sides tells the story of world-famous music conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler as he is brought under investigation by the Americans for being a Nazi sympathiser after World War II because he was known to be Hitler’s favourite musician.

“Although it is about Denazification after World War II, many of the same arguments came up that we face now when artistes were rounded up. It leaves the audience with the question of which side they would take,” says Kumar. \The setup of the play is very unusual with members of the audience sitting on the stage while the performance is going on.

“That’s the style of theatre for traverse theatre, where the audience sits on both sides of the performance. In India, audiences are more used to Proscenium stages or Theatres in-theround, which we see in villages. We felt traverse would be the right thing for this play,” he explains as he wants the audience to have an immersive experience that will leave them questioning their beliefs about how they feel about the politics of today.

Kumar was inspired to do the play when he saw a film adaptation of it 20 years ago and felt he could take it up at some point and feels now is the right time with the kinds of things going on in the country. But do terms like Nazi and fascism make sense to the layman who is concerned mainly about surviving?

“The audience who come to plays at Prithvi and Ranga Shankara are of a certain kind. If we were performing for the layman, we’d perform it in our language or adapt it to an Indian context or make something that’s a lot more direct about what’s happening in our country right now instead of telling the story of post-World War Germany,” he replies.

The play will be performed at four shows, and star Atul Kumar as Wilhelm Furtwangler and Sukant Goel as Major Arnold. They will be joined by Mallika Singh, Kashish Saluja, Kashin Shetty, Kenneth Desai and Richa Jain.

Where: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar

When: Nov 12-13, 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm

Tickets: bookmyshow.com