How ‘A Million Sitas’ spoke for women across the globe

‘A Million Sitas’ - A soul-stirring contemporary narrative

There is a sense of appealing timelessness about epics particularly, the Ramayana. As part of the Kutty Kutchery series, Rasoham and Arangam Trust presented ‘A million Sitas’ at the Narthaki studio. The expanse of the lawn became the stage and the garden also lent itself beautifully to become the entry and exit points, as also to become the extended “different scene/ different location” metaphor.

That Anita Ratnam was at home sank in deeply — for three decades and three years, I have watched her in various avatars, and in this performance, she brought together all her life experiences. As she symbolically filled the cauldron of Sita, I felt an overwhelming sense of being that woman from the audience who was once called Sita.

Uma Satyanarayana as the younger woman added layers to the pace set by Anita, and as she acted and sang, conversing with the older woman, there was the gap they bridged in their understanding of women.

As someone passionate about theatre, I feel emotion and dialogue delivery are important. What appealed the most in ‘A Million Sitas’, which was staged in a longer version at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, was the absence of the “cultivated accent”, and what caught one’s attention was the manner in which the two artistes got under the skin of the characters. The two artistes shared an easy camaraderie on stage.

Many of us would have watched this production before, yet it retains its appeal because the performance represents the fact that Sita herself continues to evolve — from child bride, princess, hermit and a woman abducted to being a woman deserted and a single mother.

The interweaving was complete at various levels — the stage itself was the finest representation of the Outside and the Inside (especially when performed at the studio space). And, this played out in the characters as they internalised and then expressed externally.

Even though participatory theatre would involve direct dialogues from the audience, this too felt participatory because there were many unspoken questions, comments and dialogues from the audience. This was a fine example of contemporary theatre from the point of view of dialogues, props, costumes, stage and the narrative itself.