The illustrious history of Madrass theatre

CHENNAI: Two veterans, AR Srinivasan and YG Mahendran, made Monday evening a delightful one for the 50-odd people who had gathered at the Taj Club House for a lecture on the glorious past of Tamil theatre. The lecture, organised as part of the Madras Week Celebrations, left theatre enthusiasts in the city craving for more. Srinivasan, who has over 2,400 stage appearances to his credit, and YGM, who has a whopping 5,000 stage appearances to his name, spoke at length about the evolution of Tamil theatre, right from the time it originated from the Therukoothu.“Tamil theatre has been in existence right from ancient times and texts written then only go on to prove this fact. For instance, in Silapathigaram, you can find specifications for constructing a stage. In fact, it also gives details on seating of the audience and the direction in which the stage must face,” said Srinivasan. He explained that Therukoothu combined all forms of art (dialogues, dance and music). “What you see in a Broadway Musical in the US, for instance, happened in Therukoothus centuries ago. So, our theatre is much more evolved than their’s. The only problem with Therukoothu was that it wasn’t disciplined — in the sense, it would go on for hours.”YG Mahendran soon joined in with some fascinating history on Nawab Raja Manickam Pillai, the legendary Tamil theatre artiste. “He had an uncanny ability when it came to handling trick shots. In fact, you could even call him the great grand dad of Steven Spielberg. To cite an instance, I watched Sermon the Mount, his play in which Lord Jesus is followed by scores of followers. He showed some 200 people following Lord Jesus on stage. He never had that many members in his troupe and I wouldn’t be able to do the very same thing even today.”Both of them had a lot to say on some of the most prolific Tamil theatre artistes like SG Kittappa, MK Thyagaraja Baghavathar, TR Mahalingam, the TK Shanmugham brothers, MR Radha, Madurai Kavignar Vishwanatha Das, KP Sunderambal, SV Sahasranamam and Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar. Lamenting on the youth’s lack of interest in Tamil theatre, both speakers made a sincere appeal to encourage good plays.