Play Saudagar performed at Bharat Rang Mahotsav in NSD

Play: Saudagar (Based on Brecht’s Exception and the Rule)

Playwright: Bertolt Brecht

Director: Bansi Kaul

Group: Rang Vidushak, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

Language: Hindi

Duration: 1 hr 20 mins

The Group

Established in 1984, Rang Vidushak is an organization of theatre enthusiasts who are dedicated to exploring new directions in performance. Its strength lies in the research and experiences of Bansi Kaul, the founding director of the group who travelled widely to get an in depth knowledge of performance and non-performance traditions. Its activities are diverse, covering the areas of training, production, theatre for children, music, design, play-reading and interaction with traditional performing and non-performing arts. Rang Vidushak aims to mould a theatre of vidushaks within the context of contemporary dynamics of performance traditions. An in-depth study of the katha-gayaki form, and practices of natgiri and akharas were made, keeping in mind their technique and sociological backgrounds. Indigenous childhood games, riddles, occupational behavior-patterns, etc., all form the base on which Rang Vidushak develops its actors’ training methodology, its body language, its idiom and performance style. Its major productions Include Nain Nachaiya, Sidi Dar Sidi Urf Tukke Pe Tukka, Samjhauta, Bedhab Thanedar, Gadhon Ka Mela, Kahani Khilauno Ki, Tankara Ka Gaana, and Kahan Kabir, amongst many others.

The Play

Based on Brecht’s Exception and the Rule, adapted and translated into the Hindi by Shrikant Kishore, Saudagar basically depicts how the system in which we live rules in favour of the ‘bigger man’, always shrugging off the poor and the deprived. The play speaks metaphorically of how First World countries have hollowed out the pre-existing societies under the pretence of discovery and modernization. The gap between the rich and the poor countries and people widen as they continue taking advantage of each other. Thesaudagar in the play is the bigger man who gets away with all the wrong-doing. With a hired guide and coolie, he sets out in search of oil to become even richer. He is unable to digest the fact that the guide and the coolie are becoming friends, and finally ends up shooting and killing the coolie out of his own securities. Once a wrong is committed it must be covered up, and so the plot proceeds.