The language of theatre can easily go beyond Konkani and Marathi and occupy a quintessential space on stage and off it in Goa. The growth of it can ensure that English theatre becomes an archive of cultural adaptation
I’ve recently returned from watching Sandals on theDoorstep, the 25th anniversary production of Goa’s longest-lived Englishtheatre group, The Mustard Seed Art Company (TMSAC). It is true that I wasamongst a small audience at Kala Academy on this December evening. Indeed,while full houses have never been a hallmark of TMSAC’s history, it is arguablethat this is not necessarily the group’s aim or indicative of its ongoingpopularity. The Seeds have built a durable fan base and for several years havedrawn initiates from successive generations of playgoers and even the progenyof former cast members. In short, TMSAC have created a self-sustainingcommunity. Doubtless, the group’s longevity is remarkable, and bespeaks alegacy in the limited but noteworthy arena of Goan theatre in a language otherthan Konkani or Marathi. This, particularly because of the Seeds’ staging oforiginal material that focuses primarily on contemporary Goa. In coincidencewith their anniversary, TMSAC have released Frescoes in the Womb, a collectionof plays by their director and playwright Isabel Santa Rita Vás. While nodiscussion of Goan theatre in English would be complete without acknowledgingTMSAC, what I pay attention to here is the purpose and futurity of the art formitself. Despite its limitations of scope, I wish to demonstrate that theatre inEnglish reflects “Goanity” not only as a body of knowledge, but also asdiscourse. What I consider here is the ambit of English theatre beyond thestage and how this labour takes on a future life once the curtain falls.
It would be too simplistic to suggest that Goan theatre inEnglish is unviable because of a language barrier. Not only does performanceallow for non-linguistic communication within the realm of the spoken word, butEnglish as it is spoken and used performatively in Goa bears its own culturalresonance. In much the same way that Brazilian Portuguese differs from theEuropean variety, forms of Indian English vary from and have even influencedBritish English, as is evidenced by the worldwide usage of words like “pyjama”and “shampoo.” That oft-maligned term “Konglish” comes to mind in the contextof Goan language hybridity, but rather than thinking of this as a bastardisedform of English, what if it was instead thought of as an archive of culturaladaptation? In a region known historically for transience because ofcolonialism, tourism, as well as emigration and return, how has language beenaffected by the many entrances and exits of worldwide actors? The implicationfor theatrical performance, then, is not only to potentially mirror linguisticmodalities, but also the kinds of code-switching that occur in a multilinguallocale. A play performed in multiple languages, for instance, would not beexperimental but allude to how people in Goa negotiate the differences betweenand within home and public spheres. Each may require specific languagecompetencies, but even communication in dialects of the same language itself,revealing negotiations of class, caste, religious, generational, gendered, andregional differences. Thus, theatre in English can self-reflexively “speak” toand about audience diversity in Goa.
Because theatre has played a role traditionally as abarometer of social and political change and also impacted such transformation,what this necessitates is the study of performance itself. The burgeoningacademic discipline of Performance Studies calls for a multifarious approach tothe analysis of theatricality, incorporating literary and cultural studies,theories of the performing arts, and the social sciences, among others. Whatparticularities are attendant to the Goan case in this regard? Tellingly, inthe fifty years since its decolonisation, Goa has no disciplinary fielddedicated to the study of its own art and culture. Plays do not need a theatre-goingaudience alone, for theatre is not only watched – it continues to have anafterlife once the curtain falls. Theatre is read, reviewed, and reacted to,making these processes encores of the dramatic. In pondering the future of Goantheatre in English, the stakes are less in issues of its expansiveness thanthey are in how taste can be expanded to reposition the Goan as an informedarbiter of his or her own culture.
R. Benedito Ferrao is an academic and writer who has livedin Kuwait and India, and currently splits his time between the United Statesand the United Kingdom. His collected writings on diaspora, postcolonialism,and culture can be found at thenightchild.blogspot.com.
