The experience of the world is
completely different from the experience of stage. The world, with all its
earthly hassles of survival and establishing an identity, moulds humans into robotic
structures running the rat race. The essence of society is that it
‘dehumanizes’ the soul by restricting it inside a bag of bones, which must act
in accordance with socially acceptable norms of ‘dehumanized’ human behaviour.
Why do I call it ‘dehumanization?’ Let me explain.
The ‘human’ element of our lives
rests in the ability bestowed upon us by biology, or the Almighty, as you
choose to believe, to create. Animalistic behaviour is associated with the
notion of destruction. It is fair to assume that the reverse should hold true
for ‘human’ like behaviour. Hence, creativity, in a sense, defines our
humanness. But then, society is unleashed on our creativity. It is not a mere
coincidence that a lot of creative geniuses have had an early end to
flourishing careers in music and acting owing to lifestyle choices that can be described
as self-destructive, at best. Society imprisons free spirit in a manner which
allows only the body to thrive, along with a battered soul which cries out for
its release from bondage. That release has been sought by means of substance
abuse by various creative humans in the past. Hence, the idea of
‘dehumanization’ of the soul in society.
LIGHTS!
Welcome to the stage. No rules. No
holds barred. No imprisoning of the soul. Freedom to explore layers of
creativity. Human.
The stage allows us to live a
character. It allows creativity to be expressed through a third party, the
character portrayed. It is amazing that the minute lights come on, we cease to
be ourselves. We become the character. Rather, the character becomes us. Actors
often feel like they are living the life of the character on stage, however, it
is the character which is then living our life. Our body becomes the
character’s medium of expression, and not our medium of portrayal of the
character. This is the joy of theatre. The blurring of lines between the actor
and the character fulfils the purpose of creativity. There is, on the one hand,
expression of creativity, and on the other, negation of the dehumanization
which society imposes.
The interesting bit, therefore, is
the lens through which one views theatre. From the actors’ and the directors’
point of view, the stage is a world of expression. From a character’s point of
view, the actor, and not the stage, is a medium of expression, while the stage
is its world of existence. The stage ‘humanizes’ the character by providing it
with the actors’ bodies. The actors’ souls merge with those of the character
and the body manifests the energy of the two. The humanness is at its
expressive best.
The whole stage is a world.
- Soutik Banerjee
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