Chennai | This play set in Nazi Germany will make you consider the instances we dwell in

A nonetheless from Taking Sides by Atul Kumar
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Hitler’s favorite conductor. 

Nobody will need to have had a moniker so divisive like that of the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwangler. It’s this very divisiveness or dichotomy that kinds the core of the play Taking Sides that involves Chennai after an nearly 50-show run across the nation. The visible narrative follows the report of the post-Conflict interrogation of Furtwangler by a US Military main, Steve Arnold, who in his previous civilian life was an insurance coverage investigator. Furtwangler’s loyalty stays to his music, because the battle of what’s proper and mistaken hangs heavy.

Director Atul Kumar thinks there is no such thing as a higher time to stage a play of this sort. Atul’s first interplay with the play occurred a number of years again, when he chanced upon a movie by Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo, primarily based on the unique play, Taking Sides. “I bear in mind telling myself that I ought to sometime decide up the script and take it to stage. It’s simply that the instances we dwell in now, sadly, makes the script extraordinarily related,” says the director.

The play, which took form throughout the pandemic, merely talks about freedom and zooms in on the arguments that type round arts and politics throughout instances of oppression. “It questions how, on the time of fascism, how one maintains one’s morality. The place does one draw a line?” provides Atul. 

A nonetheless from Taking Sides by Atul Kumar
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

The questions which might be handled the play are very private for Atul. “I’ve all the time performed theatre that’s loud, strong and over-the-top. Whether or not it’s a comedy or a tragedy, it’s all the time been bigger than life. That’s my expression, and bodily tradition has been my practise.”

This time, nonetheless, he needed to discover the classical manner of doing theatre, “the place the focus is on the phrase and the argument. So we’ve performed a play that’s real looking for the primary time in my 25 years of profession,” he says with amusing. The play is often carried out in traverse (the place the viewers sits on both facet of the performers on the centre) at various venues. “I actually needed my audiences to be divided. I needed to create this dichotomy even on how they view it.” (In Chennai, nonetheless, this format won’t be adopted because the venue shouldn’t be conducive to it.)

Although the script has been edited for time, it isn’t an adaptation. The historic references that could be misplaced on the viewers have been researched totally. 

“The forged argued, talked, and received in literature and journalistic references and mentioned on which facet we might stand. No one took a clear stand. We realised that we should maintain the viewers oscillating, and so they should go away the auditorium arguing for concepts and ideas,” says Atul who performs Furtwangler. The exterior view of whether or not the character is loyal to Nazi Germany kinds his battle. 

A nonetheless from Taking Sides by Atul Kumar
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

The manufacturing first took type over Zoom calls throughout the interval between the key lockdowns of the pandemic. And so, the play has travelled by means of unusual instances, says Atul. The viewers’s response too has additionally advanced over time. “Individuals are actually much more vocal about issues and are accepting of this play. We really feel much less scared to say the issues that we are saying,” he concludes. 

Taking Sides can be staged at Medai, Alwarpet on October 19, 7.30 pm. Tickets are on BookMyShow at₹499.