World Theatre Day was celebrated in Panjim by staging a Konkani play ‘Sopon Sot’ incorporating elements from traditional theatre forms that are popular in Goa.
‘Sopon Sot’ scripted by Antara Bhide, directed by Dr Saish Deshpande, presented by Abhivyaktee and produced by Sunapranta Goa Centre for The Arts throws light on the National Education Policy (NEP) which will be implemented shortly in educational institutions and the need to mould young minds in a different direction. It is dedicated to all the creative children who while being educated, dare to dream.
The story revolves around Mr and Mrs Pereira (Mohan Chandekar and Genevieve Rodrigues) and their only son, Robert (Malcon Pereira/Abhishek Dhawaskar). Robert is blessed with multiple talents such as penning poetry, music, song and he wishes to grow with those talents. While his mother is sober, his strict father wishes that his son should be a bookworm, concentrating only on formal education and one fine day become a naval officer.
Robert’s teachers, Rosy (Ishana Quadros) and Sapna (Krupa Vaze) try to motivate Robert. For the annual day, Robert’s friends coax him to script a play with songs, but fear of failing in his exams discourages him. He gives up on everything, to the extent of experiencing a nervous breakdown.
Will Robert be able to grow mentally and physically under the pressure of his father? Who steps in to guide Robert in a different direction? Will the new plan work for Robert in order to achieve success in life?
There are two imaginary characters of Goyo (Chaitanya Naik) and Doyo (Vighnesh Prabhu) who accompany Robert and give him the required boost every time he is down in spirits. They encourage the protagonist to dream big and be creative.
All the artistes on stage, besides the playback singers, have given a fine performance, in theatrical skills and renditions. And in order to create awareness about NEP, presentations of this play in educational institutions across Goa is the need of the hour.
‘Sopon Sot’ highlights the need for holistic development of every child while receiving education in schools. And that is possible only when education is incorporated with the creativity of the children. Instead of making formal education stressful to the students, creative, innovative minds are equally important for the overall growth. And success in life can be achieved when talents along with lessons and career are made equally important.
Throwing light on the script of the play, Antara Bhide says, “Our compulsive need of putting things in boxes and keeping them that way has hampered our own growth for centuries. We insist on keeping the sciences away from the humanities, the Math away from the art, while in fact, they are interwoven and connected.”
“We do the same to our thoughts, dreams and ideas and segregate the ‘real’ from the ‘imaginary’ while they both exist and occur simultaneously and consistently inside our heads and as a result, in this world,” Bhide mentions. “This play tries to fathom a world where nothing is unreal,” she continues, “and explores the possibilities of the future of education where there are no more boxes to pick from or to abandon.”
The director of the play, Dr Saish Deshpande states that the subject of ‘Sopon Sot’ is very close to his heart and reflects the sentiment of every child dreaming to nurture the artist in them. “Music and drama have been the inherent components of Indian theatre and our region of Goa is no exception,” he adds.
In the recent production, Dr Saish has tried to incorporate the elements of two of the most popular traditional theatre forms in Goa, namely ‘zomnivhele khell’ and ‘sangeet natak’ and have designed the presentation in the format of ‘sangeet-khell’ (musical drama).
“The two imaginary characters have been interpreted as music (melody and rhythm) and drama (poem and text) respectively,” Dr Saish explains. “Education (formal as well as informal) is to aid children to learn and encourage them to think about what they learn,” he continues, “all of our performing art forms serve as necessary tools for imparting education and our NEP too is in the process of implementing them.”
The music arrangements have been worked upon by Mukesh Ghatwal, while light designs and execution is by Avinash Chari. Kapil Chari has assisted with the set execution and Alisha Menezes has focused on the costumes. Prerna Palekar has been instrumental in guiding the artistes with the choreography.