Mystery in The State

Blackbox, one of the venues at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) in Thrissur, had a long winding queue in front of it for the first show on Friday. The people were waiting impatiently to catch a glimpse of the performance — The State. The crowd was slowly directed to a large dim lit room, the size of a badminton court. Chairs that could seat around 150 people were arranged around the room. The crowd that had walked in was led to their seats by volunteers. It was a gathering of the curious and clueless. Little did they know that they were going to sit through a theatre experience they have never encountered.

As the crowd settles in, the main doors shut. Then the wait begins. The spotlights fade out one by one until one lone spotlight focuses on the table in the centre of the room. It has a box with some envelops in it. The crowd continues to remain clueless. They begin to get restless and whisper in hushed tones, “Where are the actors? What is on the table? Are we supposed to wait any longer?” From one end of the room, a person walks to the table, takes an envelope, opens it and reads a letter from it. Thus begins one of the most mind-numbing experiences for spectators who suddenly cease to be mere spectators.

For director Alexander Manuiloff, this was yet another learning experience. Manuiloff is a popular Bulgarian writer, dramatist and screenwriter. Even though he is the director, he makes it a point to explain that The State is a performance without a director and actors. Some of the letters read during the performance mentions the name Plamen and how this person says he is going to immolate himself on a certain day.

The crowd is curious. Who is Plamen?

“Plamen Goranov, is a Bulgarian activist who immolated himself in front of the Municipal building at Varna in protest against the corrupt Bulgarian government. That incident happened exactly four years ago. The performance is a tribute to him,” says Alexander.

The director had given this insight into the play on the poster which unfortunately most people in the crowd did not notice before watching the show. Contrary to popular expectation, since the performance was anything but a traditional theatre act, a section of the crowd was clearly disappointed and agitated. So much so that they start walking out describing the performance as a sham. Some even went on to the extent of wanting the ticket money reimbursed. “Oh, this has happened before! But I did not find it negative. I think in India we are living in a creative society,” says Manuiloff.

He goes on to elaborate about the letters in the envelop.

“Those are not words written by Plamen. But I went through all the documents regarding that incident and police report which was more than 60 pages. I didn’t know him personally, but an extensive study was done about him and those words in the letters are fictional. His friends who had attended the performance earlier, said this is very close to what he would have written, says the director adding, “Plamen’s death shook Bulgaria. Why didn’t the director inform the crowd regarding the seriousness of what they were going to be a part of? Why weren’t they asked to read up about Plamen? What is more serious is that we don’t read and even if we read we don’t care. We are reading about a person who burnt himself and we still want to make a comedy out of it and this is what life is. This for me is even more dramatic.”

Manuiloff has taken The State all over Europe, to 20 venues across the world. Each of the performances elicited a different emotion.

Why not stage a play with real actors instead of involving the audience in the performance? “It is a difficult question. This is about democracy and you can’t stage a play about democracy. You can just leave it to people to see what they can do. This is not a play. It is a performance. If you are expecting to have a play out of it, you are putting it in the wrong shelf. It can be called a text design. It can be extended. It can be changed. People can perform it the way they want. It is not fixed.”

When asked about people’s reaction to the performance he says, “Reaction can be everything. When you start thinking, it is a reaction if you are rejecting it is a reaction. So if you start thinking about this performance then I have done my job.”