A Review of 'Looking In & Out'

By Manjari Kaul

Looking In & Out was performed on the 15^th of January, 2012 at National School of Drama as part of their annual festival called Bharat Rang Mahotsav. Commissioned by The Japan Foundation, this production has been primarily inspired by women who have had to face physical and mental violence. The main aim of the play is to draw attention to gender and how it functions within different cultures, ways of living and points of view. Through this process of discovery of new possibilities and acceptance of one's subconscious motivations.

The play, Looking In & Out is based on the story, In a Grove, by Japanese writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This story is about a man and a woman who are attacked by bandits in a grove, and who eventually come to different conclusions about what happened, based on their perspectives. The play witnesses a merger of theatrical styles and media. Using minimum spoken text traditional and contemporary, Indian and Japanese styles, the play uses the actor's body as a sign to be interpreted.

In this adaptation of In a Grove a detective sets off on a day when it is raining torrentially , to investigate the case of a murder and rape of a woman. Unfazed by the violence of the case, he orders a mutton seekh kabab at the crime site. He encounters different tellings of the same tale that reveal the workings of sexual jealousy and violence in gender relations. The play rejects the beaten path of linear narrative and a singular style of execution within one play. Juxtaposed with the ramblings of the detective are highly stylized movements performed by the other actors who depict the power dynamics of heterosexual man-woman relations. The actors are not assigned particular characters in the play, instead they carry fluid identities. The play explores, in this way, the feminine in men and the masculine within women.

In the end, the order of the seekh kabab stands cancelled as the delivery boy is unable to make it. With even slighter degree of disappointment as compared to the cancelled order, the detective shuts the case of the murdered lady. The case yet unsolved, screams of hundreds of neglected cases of violence against women. Looking In & Out brings to light brutality against women's bodies and psyches and a certain notion of beauty that they must fit into.

-Manjari Kaul

The Cast and Crew of Looking In & Out

Directors: Madoka Okada, Savita Rani

Group: Kaden Theatre Art Company

Language: Japanese, English, Hindi

Cast: Madoka Okade, Kotoe Tomita, Takako Abe, Savita Rani, Sujith Shanker

Lighting: Sahoko Oshima

Music: Toshiyuki Ochiai

Sound Design: Vipin Bhardwaj

Media Artist: Amitesh Grover

Space Design: Firos Khan

Co-ordinator: Nihal Kardam

Images Courtesy Kaden Theatre Art Company