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<\/a>\u00a0Nothing \u2018activates\u2019 like art. (I\u2019ll speak here of theatre). It can touch, stir the senses, the head, the heart, the body, our spirit, our \u2018social self\u2019, if you like- all together. It takes just one deeply felt action, sourced from a significant human experience, striking through the air, with beauty, to rouse an audience into another way of looking at the world.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0We are probably better off if we start with the assumption that activist theatre shoulddo much more than rally the audience on issue(s) and drive them to seek \u2018change\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0In fact, some part of \u2018activising\u2019 is lost if artists think they have found the \u2018solution\u2019 and are offering it to the audience through a performance.To hand out a solution,or end by saying \u2018So what are we going to do about it?, is a kind of manipulation of audience\u2019s thoughts and feelings rather than \u2018activising\u2019 them.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 It is not the audience alone that needs to be \u2018activised\u2019. The artists should themselves feel challenged by their creation, even as<\/span> they perform, provoke, rouse, search. Performing the material shouldn\u2019t come easy – words and actions should suggest and point to a range of human experience, to much more than what the words themselves suggest.After all the material is to do with social and political processes – so it is complex, it holds \u2018secrets\u2019, most of it is not visible, tangible, it is certainly not easy to lay bare. Also, we must allow people to make sense of it in their own ways, given their background.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 And in terms of the art forms too it\u2019s best when it\u2019s many things at the same time – attractive, disturbing, puzzling, even funny. In the best tradition of activism, the performers \u2018propose\u2019, and lay the piece \u2018out there\u2019 for themselves and the audience to \u2018enter\u2019, to struggle and grapple with, to be moved and also challenged by.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 Should activism and \u2018call for change\u2019 be clubbed together? What about activising theatre itself in a way that challenges the conventional artist – audience relationship, where one is meant to \u2018activise\u2019 and the other \u2018receives\u2019 it?<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0Augusto Boal initiated a theatre where the audience could<\/a> stop the action of the play, either instruct the actor(s) or step in themselves and change the course of the play. This is a theatre where the reins are being partly handed over to the audience as a \u2018rehearsal\u2019 for changing the circumstances of their lives. Here, the actors have to be responsive to what the audience suggests on the spur of the moment. (Warning: In some hands, this kind of theatre has also suffered from manipulation!)<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 As art activists we sometimes approach our work with \u2018gut feelings\u2019 i.e. we\u00a0 sentimentalise when we initially set out to provoke. We often mistake one for the other.The problem with sentimentality is that it takes up all the room so that there\u2019s none left for the audience to \u2018enter\u2019 the action and do its own thinking, feeling, deciding, acting (in life, not in the theatre sense). I think there\u2019s a difference between being \u2018moved\u2019 and being \u2018sentimented\u2019. The former has the capacity to generate a \u2018self -dialogue\u2019 in the audience, even if only for a moment. The latter only serves to pull at a single chord in us (usually pity) and \u2018freeze\u2019 us into a \u2018state\u2019 -a manipulation, in a sense.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough to simply \u2018go with the gut\u2019!<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 The cow comes to mind – she chews and chews\u2026.her gut sits down there in her belly, \u2018feeding\u2019 the cud in her mouth with juices made by her body. And finally, she knows exactly when she has arrived at the right \u2018mix\u2019 and then she swallows\u2026..and swallows so it reaches, nourishes the far corners of her body. It certainly takes a lot of juice!<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 We need to be particularly alert when dealing with themes like gender \/ sexuality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 In uttering \u2018walk\u2019 (in the performance, \u2018Walk\u2019<\/a> made in response to the horrific gang rape of Jyoti Pande).\u00a0I try to simultaneously sense the bodily action of the leg slowly going up, as if I am doing it for the first time in my life, to sense what it means to cover ground, both in terms of physical space and to ask myself if I am ready to open spaces in my mind, to find in that instant a connection with the audience – that I am doing an action that we take for granted because ALL of us do at some point in the day\u2026everyday\u2026, to celebrate the fact that my (our) simple capacity to put one leg after the other means I can reach all corners of the world, that Jyoti will never enjoy it again and so I must try and do it for her, that one step leads to the next and the next. In fact, for me, the thought, \u2018I want the freedom to walk unhindered\u2019, is only one part of it.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 Yes, to see a woman cry out in despair in a street play can be moving. But it all depends on the continuum of actions \/ events that the cry is a part of- what action \/ moment comes before and after the cry, where it is leading to, what larger universe of social experience and processes it seeks to connect to? What kind of inner dialogue is the character going through, grappling with? These are only some questions the artist – creators need to ask during the making process.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 As political artists we need to sharpen our understanding of social and political processes as much as we need to refine our means of artistic expression. Usually, in activist theatre, we often forsake the latter because we imagine art is only a \u2018means\u2019 to carry the message. What we don\u2019t realise is that the content can become distorted if the artistic forms and devices have not been worked upon with aesthetic care and understanding.\u00a0 So, in creating \u2018poor theatre\u2019 (usually, in activist theatre there are no elaborate sets and costumes), we leave theatre poor.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 One of the challenges in dealing with gender is that the body itself is the primary message -the sex of the performer\u2019s body – fully present, through which a gamut of human experience, themes, lives, thoughts and emotions will be represented.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 In activist theatre, the bodyseems to become larger than life -the sex of the performer \u2018speaks\u2019, even before s\/he has uttered the first word. And therein lies the artistic challenge. Theatre\u2019s primary instrument is the performer\u2019s body -how do we look at and \u2018play\u2019 with the whole spectrum of fe \/ male bodies so that the audience (and the actors) are being continuously challenged by what they see, hear and experience in the performance. In fact, the way we have largely marginalised the transgender performer\u2019s body so far proves the point.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 More – as feminists we know that gender is a thread that runs through most aspects of life. Yet, most activist theatre, certainly to do with women\u2019s issues,is reactive -it addresses problems of discrimination, harassment and atrocities. For instance, we don\u2019t make enough performances that look at \u2018daily life\u2019 -where people are \u2018simply going through life.\u2019 What is in the family system that gradually narrows down the girl\u2019s choices in regard to a range of issues? Where and how does it set in from childhood? What is the whole family \/society losing out on by not bringing her up to be her own agency? What are the linkages between systems \/ spheres in children\u2019s lives e.g. friends \/ school and the family? What about the impact of institutions beyond and their impact on children of all sexes? Where are the nooks and crevices, the small and big moments in daily life when people of all sexes can negotiate and take their life (and others\u2019 lives) in a different direction?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n