Moscow Art Theatre on Kolkata stage

• Rangapat’s newest theatre production ‘Hey Sindhusaras’ is based on the story of making of Chekhov’s play ‘The Seagull’… trying to re-live, the time and essence of the Moscow Art Theatre, the pioneer of Modern world Theatre, founded in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko— as a revolutionary move against the sentimental, entertainment-oriented commercial theatre of Russia of that time. Konstantin Stanislavski was introducing his revolutionary naturalistic ‘Method acting’ and Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was practising the realistic literature and plays that time. Chekhov was romantically involved with Olga Knipper (1868-1959), a celebrity actress, through their exchange of sensitive creative ideas that gradually built intimacy, love to consequences, 1901 to 1904 – a short life.
• The play narrates an unwritten history in the theatre creating tension between individual actor, writer and director. Chekhov wrote a medley of seemingly ambiguous events with almost no dramatic twists—only stilted dialogue and unspoken words. Seemingly a sad comedy or a happy melancholy. Chekhov called Stani’s construction and execution wrong. This conflict of belief and vision became an educational institution of modern theatre today. Chekhov was distant from his creative writing, so was he in real life. He wanted to keep himself away from any repetitive behavioural pattern that casted its shadow even after his marriage. What would it give Olga, his love turned to marriage, to live then, with intense feelings for this man, and play the character written by that man? Does the hurt never heal? A writer needs a stage, an actor and a director. The discourse is continuous. In this play, a character kills a sea-gull bird, as a symbol to show he is a writer who wants to kill himself. Again the same symbol is used of a fallen woman. ‘What I see as beautiful, I want to see dead’. Who says this…the actor? The Director? Or the Playwright?