SUDALAIAMMA VAKKUMOOLAM

Marapachi Presents Vakkumoolam & Sudalaiamma Text: V. Geetha Direction: A. Mangai

In our unjust and cruel society, struggles for equality, dignity and justice have to reckon with violence, sexual torture and death. A majority of  our  poor  is  engaged  in  these  struggles, which they must wage even as they continue with  their  everyday  lives  -  making  a  living, raising  children,  taking  care  of  the  elderly... These two plays are attempts at understanding lives led in the shadow of state violence and apathy on the one hand, and in the uneasy yet nurturing  glow  of  sorrowing  affection  on  the other. Both plays are fictional explorations of actual events.

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Vakkumoolam Author's Note: V. Geetha Vakkumoolam    (Testimony)    centres    around    a    peasant woman, Nagamma, who dares to fall in love with and marry a young dalit man. She is ostracised by her community, but undeterred  she  takes  them  on,  exposing  their  many  acts of  local  corruption,  deception  and  violence.  In the event, she is  falsely  accused  of  theft  and  arrested.  She  suffers  unspeakable  acts  of  torture  and  is  made  to witness  the continued  sexual  assault  of  her  daughter.  All  this  happens in  early  1977  in  the  last  months  of  the  Emergency.  Once she is released, she begins her long journey towards justice. She is distraught and shocked to find that the man who is to investigate the crimes against her was one of her torturers. Drawing on Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden the play deals with issues of impunity and accountability. We came to know of Nagamma's story from an article written by Mythily Sivaraman  (of  the  CPM  and  AIDWA)  for  the  Economic  and Political  Weekly  and  we  see  this  play  as  a  tribute  to  her politics of justice and empathy. Director's Note: A. Mangai In   our   conversations   about   violence,   emotions   tend   to predominate: even as we give vent to sorrow, rage and pain we risk losing sight of the everyday. This is especially so with discussions of sexual violence,  where  symbols,  metaphors and notions of honour take over. As far as state violence is concerned,  the  terror  it  arouses  overwhelms  all  else.  Yet,even as pain and sorrow prove insistent, people continue to live. How do we mark the experience of pain, now resonating as memory, especially memories of sexual violence that are invariably burdened? What sort of language may we use to express all of this? Black and white sheets, a revolving chair, the click of a  all- point  pen,  the  sound  of  grain  being  winnowed  -  several images  unfold  on  stage,  with  each  leading  to  the  other, and  each  adding  to  the  other's  meanings.  In  and  through these  images,  Vakkumoolam  unfolds  as  a  tough  and  close struggle between authority and a will to ethical justice. On Stage: Jeny, Neethirajan, Geetha, Srijith Sundaram Backstage: Art: Natraj, Guruz. Stage Management: Aswini, Senthalir. Sound: Prema Revathi. Sound Execution: Devendiran. Lights: Surendar/Bhaskar. Text: V. Geetha. Direction: A. Mangai

Sudalaiamma Author's Note: V. Geetha Sudalaiamma  features  a  female  graveyard  worker  who  is determined  to  grant  a  decent  burial  to  an  ‹encountered› young  man’s  body.  He  is  a  much  loved  political  activist, engaged  in  organizing  agricultural  workers,  and  taking  on caste injustice. However with the police guarding his corpse, a habitual task turns into a risky act. Sudalaiamma decides to risk police disapproval and in the event comes to learn of how even the dead can prove seditious. So much so, she begins to wonder about what makes for legitimacy and what makes for treason. The play is a journey into her consciousness and reasoning: she is keenly aware of the folly and injustice that attend even death in our social context. On the other hand, she has a deep existential sense of human dignity and frailty.  Inspired by Sophocles’ Antigone and the exemplary courage of our poorest and most marginal citizens who yet believe in justice and in tremendous good faith work the law and its protocols, we would like to dedicate this play to the memory of the late Dr K. Balagopal. Director's Note: A. Mangai We pride ourselves  on  our  lineage  of  honoring  the  dead  -   in   propitiating   their   memory   from   time   immemorial, reading  their  abiding  presence  in  crows,  in  hero-stones¼ Yet  today,  as  the  state  attempts  to  secure  its  sovereignty by  threatening  to  'disappear'  its  citizens,  the  ancient  right to  offer obeisance  to  the  dead  is  constantly  violated.  In a society where graveyards grow by the day, seeking respect for the dead becomes a crime. For Sudalaimma, the graveyard worker,  witness  to  many  deaths,  to  tend  to  the  dead  is labour well-done and she sees this labour of love as her way of doing right by the dead. She confronts the authority of the state in matters of life and death, by continuing to speak of the value of life from the field of the dead. Images  of  life  and  death  jostle  on  stage,  and  even  as  food reeks  of  decay,  death  is  kept  at  bay  by  everyday  acts  of living  -  water,  a  hearth  and  a  clothes-line  frame  this  world of the dead. A box of memories, a bed that is a refuge, and a cluster of voices and forms, accompanies Sudalaimma in her journeys between the two opposed worlds of violent state power and the uneasy calm of the graveyard. On Stage:  Prema  Revathi,  Janagi,  Sampathkumar,  Selvi, Sowmiya Backstage:  Art:  Natraj,  Guruz.  Lights:  Surendar/Bhaskar. Text: V. Geetha. Direction: A. Mangai