When Audience Strength for Tamil Amateur Theatre Dwindles

 By D S Rajagopalan

Theatre is one of the finest branch-forms of fine arts and live entertainment. It is being expressed to depict beliefs, tradition and societal values making it an indispensable part of human history. Tamil theatre which had its heydays between 1960s and 1980s appears to have lost its sheen with dwindling audiences in Chennai; with a very few exceptions for the plays of established troupes, where presently, around 30 troupes actively showcase their theatrical skills under the aegis of around 20 sabhas, which regularly provide platforms.  In this article, let us address the concern of dwindling audiences these days and indicative suggestions for packed audiences.

The Tamil amateur theatre had a significant landmark with the launch of Suguna Vilas Sabha in 1891 by the ‘Father’ of modern Tamil theatre (Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar) by roping in educated, non-professional actors to the stage. The movement further gained momentum when United Amateur Artistes was launched by Y.G.Parthasarathy in 1952 and other groups with artistes employed in offices started participating in plays for passion and as hobby in the evenings.

Amateur theatre was at its peak (golden era), peers will agree, in 1960s to 1980s with the stalwarts viz YGP-Pattu-ARS –Y G Mahendran, K Balachander-Nagesh, Cho, T.S.Seshadri,  Kathadi Ramamurthy, V.S Raghavan, Koothapiran, Kudanthai Mali, K.S.Nagarajan, Komal Swaminathan, Manorama,  ‘Major’ Sundararajan,  Mouli, Visu,  Poornam Viswanathan among others presented impactful plays on varied subjects.  Flight 172, Edhir Neechal, Major Chandrakanth, Mohammad Bin Tughlaq, Pattina Pravesam, Thanneer Thanneer to name a few were instant hits and were staged hundreds of times as houseful shows and healthy competition prevailed. Stage plays were made into feature films and dramatists were roped in to celluloid for their exemplary skills viz stalwarts K.Balachander, ARS, Cho, Mouli, Kathadi Ramamurthy, Visu, Y G Mahendran, Delhi Ganesh, Major Sundararajan, S.Ve.Shekhar, Crazy Mohan among others.  Who can forget the admirable performance of Sundararajan in Major Chandrakanth, brilliant performance of Nagesh in Edhir Neechal or the stellar one of Manorama in En Veedu En Kanavan En Kuzhandhai, satirical dialogues of Cho in Mohammad Bin Tughlaq or for that matter the evergreen comedy of Mouli’s Flight 172?

Thought-provoking content and stunning performances were the corner stones of success. Audience support was the backbone for all these efforts and ‘All are welcome’ concept was a rarity and houseful shows were a regularity.

The legacy is continued by modern day amateur theatre veterans Kathadi Ramamurthy, Y.G.Mahendran, Kudanthai Mali, TV Varadharajen, Augusto, ‘Madhu’ Balaji, Bombay Gnanam, Ratnam Koothapiran,  V.Sreevathson, Dharini Komal to name a few, devotedly with resolve.

The advent of television in 1975, satellite TVs and other streaming platforms saw audience for live theatre dwindling slowly. Popular Kodai Nataka Vizhas of Kartik Fine Arts and drama festivals of other sabhas are exceptions, but with lesser crowd these days. Key India matches of T20Is, CSK matches of IPL though fall under different segment (sports) also dented theatre audiences as several theatre enthusiasts are cricket fans as well. Current situation is for entry-free plays, and even when two or three leading cultural organisations jointly host a play audience strength remains thin.

Legendary artist Kathadi Ramamurthy said, “Quality plays [are] to be produced [to attract] youth. Efforts should be taken to persuade the youth and make them understand what a live stage play is which is only real and totally different from TV serials. Once the effort is successful, they will automatically come to see the plays or alternately the troupes can stage plays at their place.”

 “Nicely vet script with powerful dialogues, regular press reviews in leading English and Tamil dailies, apt characterisations will bring back sizable audience,” opined legendary playwright and director Kudanthai Mali.

 Veteran dramatist V.Sreevathson said, “We should give more attention for the good content backed by excellent presentation to make it a grandeur to match national/international standards. It’s time to focus on lights, sound, music and attractive sets. Fresh standards are to be set. Today audience needs a rich experience.”

Playwright and director Dharini Komal insisted that “Youth should be attracted to theatre with variety of content, preferably staging the plays at college, university auditoriums, as also roping in Lions Club/Rotary Club members, social media groups other than the sabha audiences.” 

 In the end, for Tamil theatre, it could be said that content and creativity should keep in tune with changing perspectives of audience both young and old.  Powerful performances could be backed by clear diction, delivery of dialogues with emotions as also characters relatable to audiences.  One could leverage technological advancement with sound, light, and music.  Plays could be of duration of one hour and 45 minutes. including interval preferably on Sunday or public holiday mornings or at 6.30pm on any day. There could be entry-free theatre shows or with nominal ticket costs. Publicity could be by news items, regular ads, reviews by the press both in Tamil and English, social media posts are the possible suggestions for packed audiences.

In conclusion, if the art patrons, art promoters, artists and art enthusiasts integrate their efforts, the return of the huge audiences to Tamil theatre will be a certainty.