​8 ½ reasons why we need playwrights today

Before Shakespeare was born, England was the Land of Religious Conflict. From Protestantism to Catholicity. Back and forth. Until Elizabeth I was was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November, 1558.

Mumbai: # Now is the winter of our discontent.

Now Shakespeare’s mother was Mary Arden who was a Catholic. And so, there are police records about the Ardens. (Simple thumb rule: The more powerful the state, the better the police records). Shakespeare’s relatives were accused of treason. They are arrested and locked up. (HT PHOTO)

It’s always wise to begin with William Shakespeare. Most famous playwright of all times; and in my view the greatest. But his entire life was shrouded in mystery.

There is a very good reason for it.

Before Shakespeare was born, England was the Land of Religious Conflict. From Protestantism to Catholicity. Back and forth. Until Elizabeth I was was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November, 1558.

During her reign three things happened: Loyalty to the Queen. Loyalty to Religion. And above all, erase the past, especially the Catholic past.

Now Shakespeare’s mother was Mary Arden who was a Catholic. And so, there are police records about the Ardens. (Simple thumb rule: The more powerful the state, the better the police records). Shakespeare’s relatives were accused of treason. They are arrested and locked up. They are tortured and sentenced to death. Edward Arden is beheaded in the marketplace. It is Theatre of Cruelty. Maim the limbs, gorge the eyes, disembowel the internal organs. You are a lucky bugger, if you die.

Young William is 19 years old. But he never forgot what he saw. The arrests, the surveillance, the othering. And so, Shakespeare decides to live one life in public and a totally different existence in private.

Why so?​

England is bitterly divided. Society is schizophrenic. The gentle and virginal Elizabeth has unleashed a police state. There are surveillance maps which monitor Catholics. Every Catholic is suspected of being loyal to the spiritual authority of the Pope. Perhaps every Catholic aims to overthrow the Queen to ensure the return of the Old Faith.

So what does Shakespeare do? He joins a Protestant theatre group: The Queen’s Men. A group that stages vulgar patriotic plays with its rabble-rousing anti-Catholic rhetoric.

Shakespeare spots an opportunity. He refines the craft. He unleashes his history plays.

And so, when you read a play like ‘Richard III’, you realise the true genius of the playwright. To be a Catholic and write such a play; and not be arrested for treason by the religious thought police.

To say what you want to say as a playwright; and yet appear to save the soul of a thousand-year old medieval history. To dodge the censorship of the state; and the ban from the religious rights; and to enforce the Queen’s will.

And above all, to stage one of the biggest box office blockbusters of the time.

Shakespeare is the koolest kat in town.

During the Covid months in 2020 and 2021, I conducted workshops with college and university students; and one of the exercises we conducted was reading of ‘Richard III’.

Three things emerged…

Literature can be a surrogate to religion! That’s why the right groups loathe the written word. The games that playwrights play; and how they playfully mock authority. Above all, how Shakespeare lived a double life. How he was a chameleon. He had to be. He was surrounded by spies, informers, double-agents. But he overcame all the odds and emerged to be the best in the biz.

#

Time to time travel and meet Bulgakov. Another writer that I gobbled up during the pandemic was Mikhail Bulgakov. This was because of the Russia-Ukraine war (‘The White Guard’ is a must-read for anyone who wants to sound like an expert in the op-ed of a national newspaper).

So Bulgakov wrote a biography called ‘The Life of Monsieur de Molière’. Later he adapted it for the stage.

Now the interesting thing is, the 20th century Bulgakov and Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (aka Molière) have a lot in common.

Bulgakov was a satirist and dramatist and Moliere penned ‘Tartuffe’ and ‘The Misanthrope’. They tried to explore the shortcomings of the high and mighty folks and human follies.

Much more importantly, they created art under repressive regimes—Bulgakov under the Bolsheviks and Molière under King Louis XIV. This meant censorship and bans.

Both were favoured by the men who reigned: King Louis was Molière’s patron, and Stalin was a fan of Bulgakov’s work.

And so, when you read Bulgakov’s portrait of the French playwright, you realised Bulgakov is actually talking about himself - and the tyrannical times he inhabited. In a sense, Bulgakov and Moliere are in dialogue with each other.

It’s dialogue at its delightful best.

Fact and fiction.

Truth and lies.

It’s a constant battle.

Their lies vs our lies.

Government untruths vs our untruths.

Who is superior?

Therefore whatever the 20th century humanists may say about ‘Satyamev Jayatev’, the fact is lies are the biggest armoury in a playwright’s stock.

Recently, I was re-reading the Tennessee Williams play ‘A Cat on the Hot Tin Roof’. I realised that I have been reading this play all wrong all along.

Tennessee Williams’s genius is, everyone is lying to everyone else on stage all the time. And so, other than the trenchant criticism of American Individualism - All their utterances to each other are a lie...

Imagine!

Margaret.

Brick.

Big Daddy.

Big Mama.

And isn’t that the crux of the matter.

Plays lie.

All the time.

And the greatest of playwrights are the best of liars.

Other than lying, playwrights impart an important lesson: plays are the cultural critiques of the times!

For that the play has to be the thing.

And for that a playwright should know how to play “the thing”.

#

When I had written ‘Mahadevbhai’ and it was staged, I would get into debates about half a million topics.

That’s when you realise the play you have written is not the play that is being seen.

Many members of the audience thought Mahadev Desai was “a figment of my Imagination.”

Quite untrue.

Mahadevbhai was Gandhiji’s personal secretary for 25 years. As Verrier Elwin wrote, “Mahadev Desai was Home and Foreign Secretary combined. He managed everything. He made all the arrangements. He was equally at home in the office, the guest-house and the kitchen. He looked after many guests and must have saved 10 years of Gandhi’s life by diverting from him unwanted visitors.”

During the second act of the play there is a re-enactment of Gandhiji’s Dandi March.

I got a letter from Bihar.

It asked me if I knew anything about the Nonia caste.

Not much, I replied.

The next letter provided a crash course in the history of “small castes” (Koiri, Kurmi, Patel, Nai, Kanchi, Kohar, Lohar, Dhuniya, Nonia, Kewat, Pasi, Rajbhar, Verma, Kushwaha, Patel etc)

The PS was: the humble Nonia was/ is the first salt satyagrahi.

Did I know this? I said no.

I learnt that the Nonias are a caste that manufactures salt. Approximately 12% in Bihar and in UP, especially the swing seats. They are a pan-India caste. Present in Tamil Nadu too. Plus, they know the history of making salt. And it’s an extraordinary history.

Imagine if there was no salt!

In this way, a new play is born.

Sometimes, you write it.

(This is an excerpt of the talk delivered by the author on December 13. The talk will be available on the YouTube channel of Ashok Da Ranade Memorial Trust)