In "Vidooshaka - The Indian Clown" I am trying to get to the roots of Indian comedy. What is traditional Indian comedy? How does it differ from Western comedy? These were questions that motivated my research for this new show, which I will perform together with fellow Canberra actor David Finnigan at the National Multicultural Festival Fringe here in Canberra, Australia, in February 2005.

It appears that the field of Indian comedy has been largely ignored to date, and is more or less completely unknown in the West. Yet, Dario Fo, famous Italian playwright of comedies (and winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature), who is said to have resurrected the art of the medieval jester with his plays, has said that "it is the Indian clown, the plain ordinary Indian street clown that has most influenced my work".

David and I have scoured ancient Indian sources for funny tales, comic subplots, and laughable stock characters. Thanks to Ros Matthews, who is doing a PhD in Hindi Literature at the ANU, we had an abundance of source materials: The Panchatantra (Animal Tales), Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of Stories), the Vetalapancavimsati (Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie), the Laws of Manu, as well as epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Researching this project, we discovered characters such as Vidooshaka, an irreverent clown in Sanskrit drama, or the garrulous woman who appears again and again in folk tales, or the Brahmin who is easily duped. We found stories that were so bizarre that we felt there must be comic potential in them. In one story from the Panchatantra, for example, a tree-fairy opportunistically enters the body of a corpse simply to make love to a woman. Other stories involve nose-cuttings, beheadings and the carrying of cripples in baskets!

Michael Gow taught us some traditional Indian dance steps and choreographed a Bollywood-esque dance sequence for our show. We were also privileged to be able to workshop our material with Dominique Sweeney and Robin Davidson, both specialists who have trained with renowned clown and physical theatre teachers such as Jaques Lecoq and Antonio Fava.

Vidooshaka - The Indian Clown is a summary presentation of our exciting findings on Indian comedy. We have weaved together different tales, borrowed from mythology, incorporated Indian dance sequences, and applied our own spin to all this to create an energetic one-act show.

8PM Wed-Sat
16-26 February 2005
Street Theatre Studio
Cnr. Childers St & University Ave
Canberra
Australia

Bookings 02-62471223
$18 / $14 conc.