DRAMA

Smell, touch, sound, taste...:

In search of holism for theatre

by Dilshan Boange

Actor and playwright Indika Ferdinando, whose reputation as a theatre practitioner is also an academician who is exploring new ground on the subject of theatre as performance art. The senior lecturer in drama and theatre at the Faculty of Dance and Drama of The University of The Visual and Performing Arts, next month he will be is staging 'The Irresistible Rise of Signno', his latest work, which is the final project meant for his doctoral studies at Monash University, Australia. Last month (July 31), I was invited to catch a glimpse of this play as a rehearsal/ preview at their faculty.

Earlier this month, I met Indika to discuss his work and to find out what forms the basis of this rather unconventional type of drama, which incidentally has a Sinhala -English bilingual script, and whether it was conceived with conformity to existing drama/theatre genres?

"There is no distinct, specific genre in mind to classify this work," says Indika explaining that there cannot be one for that matter, "because this is outside the established spectrums of western theatre genre."

He says it was conceived as a work depicting folksy vernacular and colloquy, and adds, "It's actually about testing a research question connected with everyday life, and how vernacular connects with knowledge generation in the annals of human civilisation."

However, this innovative theatre academic does not negate there are strains that would connect with existing genre. "There are several answers like this -'ritualistic parable or ritualistic epic. I say it can be an epic because it has a Brechtian approach as well."

Explaining the foundations of this work he cites traditional Sinhala rituals as Gammaduwa and Sanni yakuma as forms, which provided blood and veins for this experimental performance.

"This is not about merely a narrative with dialogic substance," Indika says, expounding with detail the academic intricacies in the project. "Certain theatre tools and techniques have been transposed for a specific theatre experience. Conventional theatre is a combination of elements that address two specific sense faculties -the ear and the eye. So conventionally, theatre is audio visual.

No viewers but participants

It's what you get as the conventional, building based, orthodox, middleclass theatre. But I'm going beyond those bounds on a path to address a far greater scope of sensory engagement. It defies traditional western genre and 'layers' and seeks to deliver a single experience as a multisensory experience that doesn't try to disengage one sense faculty's perception from the other. You could say it's a holistic experience."

What is special about ritualistic performances like Gammaduwa and Sanni yakuma as compared to proscenium theatre one may ask? The answer was sociological and ideological as much as aesthetically reasoned. "Our olden forms of folk drama were community based. They were not class based like the proscenium. Everybody participated without fail in the 'production' of the ritual, and in some sense had common ownership over it.

Further, there was ample ideological compelling in the system they lived in to ensure participation. Cultural and religious beliefs kept them engaged with the rituals."

A noteworthy theorem that Indika is hoping to propound through this project is that those who form the 'audience' of the kind of performance he is going to put on are not 'viewers' but 'participants' or 'attendees'. Why does he say this? "When you say 'viewer' it designates the sense faculty of the eye as being the central basis to perceive the performance. My attempt is to address six senses." Six senses? Yes; Indika is challenging the western paradigm of sense perception. He formulates his theoretical premise on the teachings of the Buddha. The six senses are -eye, ear, nose (smell), tongue (taste), body (touch) and the mind.

So what forms the research and studies base for the project? Indika reveals three principal bases of theory involved, which provide tools for analysis and interpretation. "One is Sensory Anthropology pioneered by academicians like Prof. David Howes and Prof. Constance Classen in the University of Concordia, Canada, which studies culture via senses and vice versa for cultural specificity.

This discipline helps search the cultural specific aesthetic experience to be appreciated in the ritual experience, "he says, explaining how Cognitive Neuroscience also provides tools from a bio-medical scientific basis to his research, where one objective is to generate a 'sensory identification' between the 'perceiver' with the 'performance'. "Buddhist philosophy too has a great part in this. The 'Abidharmaya' offers analysis tools for this research. 'Reality' is discussed as a construction through senses. One of the main texts referred to for this purpose is Dan Lusthaus's Buddhist Phenomenology," he points out.

Physical experience

Indika is on an ambitious project to reveal new theoretical ground for widening the scope of theatre and its application to our traditional ritualism through contemporary performance. "I'm trying to see how the conventional audio visual theatre experience can be transcended using ritual aesthetics. I'm trying to make it a 'physical experience'," he says.

With ritualistic elements that help project sound vibrations, for example through drumming as with the 'yak beraya', that will deliver the 'touch' of a subtle physical presence, and odours to address the sense of smell, the performance hopes to address all senses of the attendees. Not forgetting the sense of 'taste', Indika is devising means to achieve his envisioned holistic theatre experience, where all sensory experiences come together to create a singular unique indivisible aesthetic experience.

The reason why it's bilingual is that it must address the examiners from Monash University who will evaluate it. "The Sinhala folklore and 'literature ancestry' that forms its basis would otherwise make it a Sinhala performance. And if it's staged later on, it will be as a fully Sinhala play."

How commercially viable will it be as a form of theatre? "Achieving commercial viability is presently not an objective. In Sri Lanka as opposed to wealthy countries, theatre struggles under severe financial and technological limitations. For now it's an experimental work with an academic objective." An objective pursued avidly to give greater value to our traditional ritualism through academic credence and reveal depths of our heritage's richness to developing western minds.