MARGAO: The tiatr fraternity and tiatr lovers on Sunday condemned the assault on tiatrist Conception de Tuem by Jennifer, wife of Francis de Tuem and a group of people during the staging of the tiatr “Answer” at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, on Saturday evening.

Renowned tiatr director Wilson Mazarello said, “This is a bad sign for Konkani tiatrs. Settling personal scores on stage is bad. The end result is what happened on Saturday. A time will come when audience will stay away from tiatrs. This has happened earlier. It seems that we have not learnt a lesson. Censorship in tiatrs could also be a result of all this”.

Konkani author and tiatr critic Daniel F de Souza said, “The tiatr stage is sacred and needs to be treated with respect and dignity. It is a platform to display creative art talent and educate people, not to be misused to cast aspersions and settle personal scores under the veil of dramatics.” 

“We are witnessing undesirable things being presented on stage in the name of tiatr in the recent times. As the regulatory authority, the Tiatr Academy has failed to bring in discipline among the tiatr fraternity. The senior directors must step in and control the rot that has set in before it consumes this beautiful performing art called tiatr,” he added 

“The audience has no right to invade the stage during a performance, though they can openly voice their concern from their seats. If they feel there is an attempt being made to cast aspersions, or victimise fellow tiatrists, and intrude their personal lives, they should take recourse to the law (police),” de Souza said. 

“Assaulting and abusing artistes during a performance on stage, in my opinion is an uncivilised act. And this trend should be stopped forthwith,” he added.

“What is the use of most tiatrists making the sign of the Cross whilst stepping on the stage, when they fail to treat it with the respect, dignity and sanctity it deserves and commands? Is it just a symbolic gesture?"

Noted tiatr director Pascoal de Chicalim said, “The only way to save tiatrs from getting bad to worse by the unwanted publicity it is receiving now is through self censorship. Every tiatrist, maybe director, producer, writer, singer and comedian should apply self censorship to their tiatr be it script, song or comedy so that it is presentable to the audience and not hurt anyone in any form. This is my take if tiatr has to flourish. Government is waiting for every opportunity to censor tiatrs. Hope better sense prevails amongst tiatrists,” he added.

Tiatr lovers feel that the quality of tiatr needs to improve in general.

“The on-stage assault on the director of tiatr ‘Answer’ by a gang-led by a tiatrist’s wife is indeed very sad. In fact, the unabated washing of dirty linen and the onstage assault of tiatrists was long overdue,” said Jesuin George, a tiatr lover from Cansaulim.

“Tiatrists of yesteryears such as C Alvares, M Boyer, Prem Kumar, Souza Ferrao, Remmie Colaco, Alfred Rose, Star of Arossim and others considered the stage as sacred and refrained from crossing the line. Their evergreen songs are today the favourites of Goan bands,” George added.

However, there is common consensus between tiatrists and audience. 

There are acceptable ways where people can take up their grievances with the tiatr content, but an attack on the stage is an attack on tiatr as it could lead to a future where tiatrists will be scared of expressing themselves. While tiatrists firmly believe that the stage is a place where they hold a mirror up to society and give social messages, tiatr attendees feel that it is time tiatrists reflect and ensure that there is no repetition of such commendable incidents so that tiatr does not suffer.