Alliance francaise du bengale & Culture Monks present ‘Mirrors of the Soul (Memory, History and Trauma)’ – performance by Soti Rpd, as part of Theatre Adda : Park Street Sessions.
Date : May 25, 2018
Time : 7 pm
Place : Alliance francaise du Bengale, Park Street, Kolkata
Mirrors of the Soul
(Memory, History and Trauma)
Synopsis:
(Mirrors of the Soul)
Mirrors of the Soul” is an intense journey that mirrors the deep-seated insecurities at the heart of the mystery of change as time passes along the maze called life.
A savant climbs out of imprisonment.
He wakes up shuddering on the thin rope between life and death, lost in utter darkness.
He searches for light and discovers hidden possibilities.
But he is subjected to the complexities of human life. To adapt to these process, he would need to change by surrendering and submitting to the adult identities, while holding the tension of the struggles within, linked also to the traumas and shame from his childhood.
The body – his only tool – is his only hope for survival.
Will he escape from society’s dangerous mouths? Or will he sink further into despair?
Director’s Note:
(Mirrors of the Soul)
I wanted to develop a contemporary, postmodern performance based on traditional Asian forms such as Kuddiyattam, Beijing Opera, Noh, Wayang Wong, Kalaripayattu – which emerged physically as entry points on dualities.
Essentially, the “adult”, “professional” identity of a performer is juxtaposed with the more “childlike”, “innocent” identity of a past memory. The further the performer exhibits his physical prowess, the more the “story” becomes disengaged, offering an insightful spectacle of spatial, emotional and psychological tensions all acting at once.
On one hand, “Mirrors of the Soul” showcases the adaptability of the human body in the face of physical challenges. On the other hand, it is a deeper emotional exploration of unreleased trauma and shame that disconnects the performer from his audiences. This reflects, to a large extent, the philosophical questions and (misplaced) actions that frame our human existence and our “playing out” of multiple identities.
About The performer/Creator:
SOTI RAMAPATI DWIVID ( Soti Rpd)
Soti is an actor, director, educator, acting/movement and voice/speech trainer who hails from Tilhar, Shahjahanpir, Uttar Pradesh, India.
A graduate from the Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore) with a Professional Diploma in Intercultural Theatre Acting, Soti has also received a Master of Performing Arts with a distinction in Theatre Arts from the University of Hyderabad, along with a Master of Arts in Hindi from the M.J.P. Rohilkhand University Bareilly, India.
He has received training under the tutelage of internationally reputed and distinguished teachers and directors like Aarne Neme, T. Sasitharan, Phillip Zarilli, Prof. B. Ananthakrishnan, Prof. Ramgopal Bajaj, Mohan Maharishi, Prof. S. Ramanujam, Abhilash Pillai, Marc Weinblatt, Bert Van Dijk, Leela Alaniz, Guillermo Angelelli, Adriano Basegio, Robin Payne, Noushad Mohamed Kunju and Satyabrata Rout.
Skilled with traditional, psycho-physical acting and intercultural performing art forms, Soti has an excellent command of versatility and expression through his repertoire in Bundelkhand Martial Arts (India), Chhau (India), Kalaripayattu (India), Kudiyattam (India), Tai Chi (China), Beijing Opera (China), Noh (Japan) and Wayang Wong (Indonesia), and contemporary practices like Michael Checkhov’s Acting Technique, The Alexander Technique and other physical theatre disciplines.
Most recently, Soti conceived and devised his own solo performance expressed through psycho-physical theatre, titled Mirrors of the Soul- Memory, History and Trauma and is published in the Contemporary Performance Almanac 2017, the world’s largest contemporary performance network publication in New York, USA. He also received accolades for his role in the Virtuous Burglar, directed by Aarne Neme in 2016.
In the same year, he contributed to a performance in Dastak, Singapore’s first Hindi Theatre Festival, for which he received the Best Actor Award for his role in Toba Tek Singh, directed by Edmund Chow. Some of his other stage acting credits with India’s luminary directors include Albert’s Bridge by Mohan Maharishi, Perenium-A Retributive Justice by Abilash Pillai, Reflection by Noushad Mohamad Kunju, and Ephigenia by Satyabrata Rout.In 2014, he debuted as a director of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in India and went on to further direct and devise contemporary performances of Samwadiya and Thais in in 2017 in Singapore. As a director, Soti draws inspiration from the master metaphor within concepts or patterns; thus, bringing to life connections through the theatrical form. Through analysis of the script, he is able to understand and bring his own consciousness and inteprete the text/script in order to make a theatrical entity of the entire production for the audience…
Soti is also the Artistic Director of M.L. Ramanad Theatre Foundation in India and Co-Founder/Director of Theatre Incorporate in Singapore. Currently, he works internationally as a freelance artist.
This program is supported by Iris Home Fragrances and Converge Mobile Store.
Culture Monks 