Friday, November 27, 2009

The Travelling Circus of Pretension

So, this is what happens when a bunch of Colombo’s arty thespians take it into their heads to draw recent events on an allegorical map and shit all over it.

Based on a short story by someone who calls himself MASii, The Travelling Circus by Mind Adventures is a cheap knockoff of Salman Rushdie in his Haroun and the Sea of Stories phase, centring on a boy who speaks in numbers living in a village where everyone else speaks in colours.

Preceded by a suitably whimsical musical introduction, the director and self-avowed ring-mistress begins the play by situating it in the Village of Fat Hopes on the Island of Short Memories. She calls it the Travelling Circus of Refugees.

What follows is a ghastly wallowing in pseudo-intellectual pseudo-empathy; an ostentatious indulgence in sententious frippery at the expense of the very people it claims to speak for.

During the course of the hour (it feels like several), this disingenuous excretion of fringe theatre disgorges such asinine monstrosities as the Cost of Living Cow, the Propaganda Lizard, and the Britney Spears Mynah Bird on a hapless audience. And that’s only the animals—the people are no better (the solitary goday accent adopted by the government soldier is cringe-worthy in its condescension); the set pieces far worse:

The bit in which a traumatised trinket trader lapses into day-mares about the bombing of his house is a literal song and dance and gigolo giggle about people on fire and dismembered limbs. The Johnny Batta waltz with lofted ‘Danger – Landmines’ signs, the caterwauling foppery set around an air-raid, the Socialist/NGO Exploitation Dance, the cricket matches… I could go on, but why bother?

What’s wrong with this Travelling Circus is its moral slackness, its shameless pretension, its horrendous reductionism. The Sri Lankan conflict is trivialised as a Civil War of Lies in which both parties are equally culpable; shirking substantive commentary, it is a spurious caricature fleshed out with Question Trees and second-rate hogwash.

In their defence, the perpetrators will no doubt espouse lofty intentions; on the company’s website, the director claims they wanted to “comment in some way on what [they feel] are the most pressing concerns in our country right now”. Oh, right. A sly sideswipe from the sidelines, the play is like some drink-sodden tripped-out spawn of Lewis Carroll and Hieronymous Bosch. Overreaching in desperation to achieve significance, it fails.

The pity of it all is that unlike the previous insult to theatre that provoked my ire, the acting in this piece is fluid and sure-footed, with sparkles of brilliance from a select few. But if we are to believe the souvenir, they deserve no defence. Apparently this shameful exercise in disaster porn was an attempt at devised theatre for which the whole cast is guilty. That leaves only one question to be asked: what the hell were they thinking?

38 comments:

  1. sittingnut, did you see the production yourself?

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  2. yes.
    any problem with that, anon? :-)

    i was going to write one, but found this post said most of what i wanted to say plus a lot more, in a more articulate manner than i could ever do.

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  3. If you expected a linear progression of events from this production, then yes, you would be disappointed. But not all theatre works like that, does it? As to exaggeration, greater writers than Masii have used it to get their point across. As for war, we all know there are many perspectives on it--and this play merely portrayed one (or two). Can't fault them on that. Surely you don't go for a play expecting to see only what you believe to be true? As to its tediousness, well, no one walked out the night I was there. No one booed either.

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  4. @anon... "no one walked out the night I was there. No one booed either." - sri lankans are a polite, if war torn, lot :)

    circ apparatus, i agree with your take. it was sad to see some otherwise better knowing folk (coughgihan) tangled up amongst the nuga roots

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  5. Can someone here tell me what devised theatre means? Is it like Forum theatre?

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  6. Saw this, thanks for the review, and for coming, of course.

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  7. And Anon - no, devised theatre is not really like forum theatre. It just means that rather than starting with a script in hand, the actors and director together do a series of collaborative improvisations to come up with story, plot and characters. So, they create the play from scratch. In this case, we took the short story The Boy Who Spoke in Numbers and devised a theatrical adaptation of it.

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  8. @Electra - thanks ... still a little confused, though--if you devised the script from a short story that's not exactly creating a play from scratch, is it? I would think some plot ideas must have come from the original text?

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  9. Ansar,

    I dont know how well you know me or why seeing me on stage (tangled among the Nuga roots) made you sad. All i can say is i have the utmost regard for MASii as a writer, Tracy as a director and my fellow cast members as talented, committed actors.

    Loki, while negative reviews are welcome, it would have been nice if your article contained some substance instead of being a barrage of insults, where you find a hundred different ways to say the play was 'shit'. Give me a dictionary of insults any day and i can do the same. Next time try and present some arguments of your own. As artistes, constructive criticism is what we look for. You write well. Put it into good use.

    Anon - devised theatre does not have to start from scratch (although it could). It often uses an existing story as a base. Forum theatre is where contemporary social issues are presented in the form of drama, and the audience gets involved in resolving the issue/problem on stage.

    Gihan de Chickera

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  10. Thank you for your comments.

    @Electra: you’re most welcome.

    @Gihan: I am sorry that you find my review unhelpful. However, if you read more carefully, you may find that I avoided wordy elaborations of the play’s defects by using epithets (which you seem to find insulting) that captured the spirit of my critiques.

    If you unpack these epithets in their proper context, you will see that the review does not lack substance. If you really need me to elaborate, please let me know and I shall oblige when time permits.

    Finally, I hope you artistes appreciate that constructive criticism is a privilege and not a right.

    :-)

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  11. You thought the acting was good?

    Up to that point, you and I were on the same wavelength.

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  12. Loki - are you the same Loki that once had a blog called Prose?

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  13. Hi,

    Is Loki short form for loquacious by any chance?

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  14. Loki

    wordy elaborations are not necessary to highlight defects. good writers should have the capacity to be concise and descriptive.

    i never implied that constructive criticism is a 'right'. i just said we expect and appreciate it. constructive criticism creates discourse. outright attacks (and insults) create petty debate and mudslinging. i for one believe the former serves a greater social purpose. the latter is good for media and politics...not art. and anyway, expecting basic privileges is a right as well... :)

    as someone who has been in the media field for 8 years i know through first hand experience that our war has essentially been a 'civil war of lies'. a cursory glance at the daily news and tamilnet when the fighting was going on would prove this to any idiot...

    i could go on and on. but I'd rather meet you in person and give you some constructive criticism of my own

    my number is not hard to find. give me a call if your interested :-)

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  15. http://indi.ca/2009/12/travelling-circus-of-critics/#comment-235738

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  16. Ah...Loki, my celestial sister, I am thrilled to see this blog flourish.
    May I please take some credit for the birth of this grandiloquent demon?

    Thank you for making my crimson heart sing out in joy in the knowledge that there are some amongst us that have mastered the language and have put it to such wondrous use.

    Your guardian angel

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  17. Dude, Gihan this is a blog. Chill the fuck out. No one has spare time like you to meet random people in person...

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  18. Loki's mom

    calm down. sorry... i mean calm the fuck down...

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  19. That's rich. And also original...who would've thought of "calm down" as a witty response to "chill out"... LOL

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  20. aunty - very 'witty' response ... LOL. this blog is turning into a mudfest. is that what you wanted Loki ? its clear to me now why you didnt get the play. adios!

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  21. Unfortunately, there is only one known fool amongst a bunch of anonymous jokers.

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  22. So I go away a couple of days and this happens. Clearly, people out there have much more time at their disposal than I do :-P

    @Electra: I have not had any previous blogs, so no, I'm not the same Loki.

    @Anon #?: Loki being a figment of Norse mythology reputed for mischief, it seemed somehow appropos on a blog where this would almost inevitably ensue.

    @Gihan: If you expected my review to contain the sort of constructive comments you'd enjoy receiving while sitting around under the Nuga tree singing Kumbaya, alas, I must disappoint. Nevertheless, your offer to meet up and chat on matters critical and theatrical (whilst borderline creepy) is intriguing, and I will honestly consider it when I have time.

    @Annonymous angel: my celestial brother, you are indeed culpable. Much thanks ;-)

    @Miscellaneous crazy relatives: Er... for once, words fail me.

    :-)

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  23. @gihan - dude dont waist ur time with these idiots. atleast u have the balls to reveal ur identity. anon is right - although i think the jokers are the ones who hide behind weird names (making me one too lol)

    @ Loki and ur mad family. u all sound retarded. and sad. did i say retarded?

    @Tracy and crew - i liked the play. didnt fully agree with it but atleast u guys called a spade a spade.

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  24. way to go critics. give the bloody ngo buggers what they deserve. superb review!

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  25. @Loki - why silent? too busy getting serial gang raped on a daily basis by the corporate sector behemoth ?

    @anon - stop talking through ur ass. it reeks of shit! LOL

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  26. It looks like the artistes have a lot to learn about accepting criticism. I believe this is a norm among the 'arty' thespians of Colombo

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  27. @semicharmedlife: I didn't think anything had been said that deserved response

    @Anon above: Some of them certainly don't appreciate tough love ;-)

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  28. @Loki - thats ur problem... u dont think...

    @Anon - i repeat. stop talking through ur ass (u know how the rest of it goes...)

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  29. HOO HOO. You didn't like our play but we have your 500 Rupees. Thank you come again. Bring more friends next time and buy more tickets.

    Gihan shut up :p

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  30. The play was ugly as were the people in it. Next time I hope their "productions" get flushed down the loo into the cesspit where they belong.

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  31. @Rick - dick?

    @TheTicketBoy - i want a refund!

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  32. @ Semicharmedlife - I'm surprised you can see the screen to type when your bending over so much in front of Gihan :)

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  33. ticketboy - did you send any of the 500 ruppees you got to the idps?

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  34. @Anon - after three days of wracking ur brains thats the best retort u could come up with? i dont know whether to laugh or cry...

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  35. Anyway, i just thought i'd clarify that i'm a moron

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  36. @ semicharmedlife AKA Gihan's buttboy - Unlike you, I have a life and don't spend my every waking minute waiting to respond to comments on this blog ;)

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  37. Is loki going to ever write again?

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