Solo performance of a woman's sexual revenge

Pushing boundaries: Nirmala, recipient of the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award


Business Times - 30 Oct 2009

Solo performance of a woman's sexual revenge

Experimental dancer Nirmala Seshadri's Outcaste Eternal is an intense and moving multi-medium performance. She tells WOON TAI HO why it's staged for the Writers Festival

SHE is 14. On the night of her wedding, she is raped by her brother-in-law while her husband stands guard at the door. The setting is in Kerala in the early 1900s, the community is the orthodox upper caste Nambudiri Brahmins.
Such is the story behind Outcaste Eternal - a solo performance by Nirmala Seshadri, recipient of the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award. Based on the English translation of the Malayalam novel Brushtu, this true-life story depicts the sexual revenge of a lone woman, Paptikutty, as interpreted by Nirmala. Fittingly, although technically a dance, Outcaste was performed as part of the ongoing Singapore Writer's Festival.
Dramatic true story
Nirmala began her performance by narrating her tale of a judicial system in which sexually abused women are humiliated while their attackers get off scot-free. 'It is into this community that Paptikutty was born,' she says as she moves behind a screen, forming a silhouette as she stretches her arms out and screams: 'This is my story!'
When she emerges from behind the screen, her face becomes doll-like and as the Bharatanatyam classical sound fills the art house chamber, the performance alternates between classical and contemporary. Images of her appear on the screen while she stretches and twists her body almost in sync with the images, as the tale of her heroine unfolds.
The true story itself is as dramatic as her performance. In her act of revenge, Paptikutty seduces 64 prominent upper caste men and kept proof of these sexual liaisons. When she is called to trial, she argues that if she is to face excommunication, so too should the 64 men who have slept with her. And for the first time in Kerala, 64 eminent men were outcast, resulting in the break up of numerous families. It was a landmark point in the history of Kerala leading to many social reforms.
Nirmala's choreographic work is experimental in nature. In seeking contemporary expression through classical form, she has been pushing the boundaries of her dance form Bharatanatyam, moving into a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach.
Outcaste Eternal was performed through words, music, dance, drama and video images. The chamber of the Arts House was the ideal space for a trial as the audience became part of the performance, and subsequently, the witnesses.
The stark set worked well for the 42-year-old dancer, whose energetic presence filled up the entire space. She used the classical form, angika abhinaya (body); vachika (voice); aharya (accessories to communicate); and satvika (feelings and emotions that contort the face) to magnificent effect.
Moved audience
The animated discussion during the post-performance Q&A attested to how much Nirmala's performance had moved the audience. At one point, she stood up to clarify: 'I don't see this as a man vs woman battle. It was and still is the consequence of society's patriarchy. Even today, women raise their kids to conform to the patriarchal society.'
According to Venka Purushothaman of La Salle, 'more than being a treatise on feminine inner power and might, I found the production to be a moving testament to the human spirit'.
In a post-performance chat, Nirmala said that while working on a dance project on the theme of Shakti, which explored the theme of female energy, she read Outcaste and felt the need to address the dichotomy that exists between the revering of woman as 'Goddess' and in her actual treatment in society.
'Because it is a contemporary literary text and not the ancient texts I had been so used to working with, I felt the spoken word had to be brought in. The point of origin for this performance is still the literary text; therefore I feel it is significant in presenting it within the framework of the Writers Festival.'
Working with the translator of Outcaste, author Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Nirmala premiered it in Singapore with a full cast in 1999. When it was re-staged in Chennai last year, her sister Mrina suggested the idea of a one-woman mono-act. 'She felt it might be a more intense and moving representation of the story,' said Nirmala.
The solo act focused almost completely on the protagonist, presented in a conference mode where the narrator presents a paper on the theme of revenge using Paptikutty's story as a case study. The video and dance were fragmented and served as memory and dream. 'It's a work in progress,' she said. 'It may be different when I next stage it.'
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