Sujanpur is a small township somewhere in our vicinity. One day it is informed through a letter that a higher official is coming to enquire into the corruption going on in almost every sector in the township. The Mayor, the President, the Post Master, the OC of the local PS get scared and start planning how to overcome the situation. But the inspector already reaches the town. Then the peon of the post office takes the cudgel to manage the whole thing. So, under his guidance, all the said persons try to satisfy the inspector by bribing him so as to they could avoid the enquiry about corruption. But the person whom they thought to be the inspector, apprehending the tricks of the corrupt people, escapes with the money. It is known through an email that that person was not the designated inspector and the original inspector assigned is coming as soon as possible. At this point all start blaming and beating the ‘over-confident’ peon and the play ends at this crucial moment.

The theme is Chaplinesque. The form is Brechtian. And the performance is slapstick, derived from Dario Fo’s theory of Commedia dell’arte. With these three components we wanted to reach our audience – wherever they are. As Badal Sircar opines – theatre should go to the people and it must be accessible for mass. So, we can perform the play anywhere – from proscenia to open arenas, from rooftop to street corner, and so on. We want to make it a people’s theatre.

We think, theatre is a sensitive media – politically palpable and historically aware. And as a political being, an actor should respond in every web and tide around the society. We found sarcasm is the sharpest weapon to lodge our protest against inhumanity, corruption, heritage-destruction; and so, we chose to present the play in a slapstick manner so that we could connect our audience promptly.

To do so, we went through the lessons from Bertolt Brecht, as his theory of Epic Theatre has become a key note of the play. Our actors try hard to portray their characters in Epic format using the alienation effect – that is the basic platform of the Brechtian theory. Apart from all this, we have learnt the lessons on connecting people from our Folk Theatre. This indigenous art teaches us how to intimate audience in a minimalistic way, yet sharp at its political ends. Through satire, music and mirth they create a realm of tangible reality where audience could easily identify the crisis they are suffering from. We have learnt and experimented all these elements in this particular play, Tadanta.

Yet we mingled Tagore with Gogol to fetch more sarcasm into the play. Tagore is so omnipotent that he could fit into any art form. Just we have to find him in it. So, we used some parody of Tagore’s songs which has made the play more hilarious. Meanings of the original songs have been woven more prominently by doing this. Actually, it is not the parody of Tagore; actually, we have parodied the present political environment through our theatre.

The original play, The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General is a satirical play by Russian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition. Based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, satirizing human greed, stupidity, and the political corruption of contemporary Russia. We are now living in similar socio-political milieu, and the adapted version of the play by Tirthankar Chanda aptly goes describing the present scenario. Hence, we found the play is really prolific to be staged. Our aim is to find PEACE and a corruption-free world for our forthcoming generations.

Play: TADANTA, based on The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol

Adaptation: Tirthankar Chanda

Music: Ajay Bhattacharya & Nilanjan Roychowdhury

Props: Pushkar Chakraborty

Acting: Sukumar Chakraborty, Bibek Dey, Pushkar Chakraborty, Raja Bhattacharya, Aritra Singha Roy, Shirshendu Nandy, Siddhartha Maity, Sutapa Mukherjee & Mandira Banerjee.

Duration: 1 hour 22 mins (approx.) without break

Production: Blank Verse

Edit, Parody, Design & Direction: Raja Bhattacharya