Adishakti’s play ‘Urmila’ brought to life a storyboard suffused with elements from physical theatre, movement-based story-telling and couching complex themes of gender disparity, bodily autonomy and female agency, during a show at the 11th Remembering Veenapani Festival.
While the episode from The Ramayana is referenced to extol the spirit of sacrifice by Urmila in sleeping through 14 years as a quid pro quo for facilitating her husband Lakshmana’s wide-eyed vigil to guard Rama and Sita in exile, the play pushes back against what is normative in the mythological construct, and raises discomfiting questions about gender imbalance and exploitative choices.
Nimmy Raphel, writer and director, who also explored the sleep curse dynamic in the earlier production “Nidravathwam” (a study in contrast to the circadian rhythm of Kumbakarna and Lakshmana, brothers and trusted lieutenants of the two protagonists– Ravana and Rama), turns a probing mind to the predicament of Urmila in this play.
The story begins in media res at Ayodhya where Urmila (Nimmy) is shown to be mental turmoil, a tormented soul who faces up to the travesty of having lost 14 years of the most productive phase of her life to sleep---her destiny was sealed with her husband’s casual command: “Sleep my sleep.”
Her mind burns with questions of consent, lack of agency and bodily autonomy.
Vinay Kumar, Adishakti Artistic Director, who also composed a delightfully eclectic soundcape of music interspered with voices, and Sooraj S play the comical, argumentative pair of soldiers of “Nidra”, the goddess of sleep, constantly devising tricks to put Urmila to slumber.
The guards lob and juggle light balls as they conjure up tricks to subjugate the protagonist from a wakeful state to sleep.
“Urmila” is a peripheral character reimagined as a radical symbol of resistance against the erasure of female sovereignty.
The mise en scene, resembling a workout setting with a gym ball and rope-walk contraption, is perfectly set for Nimmy to showcase her prowess in physical theatre. Vinay, breaks the fourth wall, ad-libbing his way during portions of the play.
“Urmila”, where a woman’s body becomes the final battleground of subjugation when all other forms of agency are denied, propels to a poignant coda where the protagonist’s inner battles to resist colonisation of her identity and existence, are conveyed through a prism of spinning reflections from three mirrors in motion.
Like “Bali”, that preceded this show or the upcoming “Bhoomi” (Thursday), the integration of music, dance, movement and emotional craft into one performance language, or what Adishakti’s founder and experimental theatre pioneer Veenapani Chawla envisioned as a form of hybrid theatre with a modern, pluralist aesthetic.
Published - April 16, 2025 11:58 pm IST
