Where the road ends

The sleepy town of Kamshet is a three-hour drive from Mumbai. As you navigate the bylanes of this town locked between Mumbai and Pune, your phone loses signal, the number of people diminishes, and the occasional bull saunters by. Somewhere deep into the Western Ghats, you’re enveloped by vast greenery and the serene waters of the Vadivali lake. And just as you are nearing a dead end, a bright yellow-and-black signpost pops up on the silent road, welcoming you to The Company Theatre Workspace — a project by celebrated theatre artist Atul Kumar in the neighbouring village of Uksan. The five acre-plot acquired six years ago is meant to be a research space for theatre artists, painters, dancers and writers wanting to work on their craft.

Earlier this month, the workspace was officially inaugurated with the Kamshet Arts Festival, which saw several theatre persons and artists dash down to this village to join in the celebration. The all-night event, attended by over 600 people, included an Odissi dance recital by Bijayani Satpathy of Nrityagram, a performance by Hindustani vocalist Manjusha Kulkarni Patil and director Atul Pethe’s play Satyashodhak . It kicked off late evening and continued till the break of dawn. “It was just beautiful to listen to Patil’s morning raga as the sun came up the next day. The atmosphere was so electric. The event was organised with a lot of heart by Atul and his team,” says actress Tillotama Shome.

While I worry about my phone with no reception, the artistes here revel in that very isolation. For a while now, theatre actors in the region have been choosing to make the trek to this remote workspace instead of scouting for rehearsal spaces, which are few and far between, in the city. Often they are left with no option but to rehearse on building rooftops, where they must outshout honking cars, music from the neighbourhood gym and the sounds of cement grinders.

The idea to build this workspace is as old as Kumar’s theatre group, which recently completed 21 years. “It came up when I was sitting with a friend at his flat in Paris. I remember we were discussing how French theatre artist Ariane Mnouchkine built such an exciting space somewhere in the middle of the woods (in 1970) and today half of Paris’ theatre community functions out of there. When I came back to India, I realised that it was already happening in the field of dance. And in theatre, Veenapani Chawla’s Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research in Pondicherry was also doing great work. I thought maybe we should start something similar in Maharashtra,” says Kumar, who now spends a lot of his time at the property in Kamshet. Residencies like Adishakti or Ninasam in Karnataka’s Shimoga district have for decades provided a home for cultural enthusiasts to create new work, attend workshops and interact with artistes from other disciplines.

Kumar’s play Piya Behrupia , a Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was conceived and created in this space. “I have such fond memories of sitting half-naked by the lake and looking at the hills,” he says with a laugh. Theatre director Sujay Saple, a founding member of The Company Theatre (TCT), who has now formed his own group called Shapeshift, is a frequent visitor. Along with Kumar and his actress wife Rachel D’Souza, Saple has played an instrumental role in designing the space. He refers to the area as a “laboratory for new experiments”, which immediately throws up images of a suited-and-booted environment. On the contrary, the sprawling white unit exudes a warmth, making it feel like a home away from home. The drawing room is replaced with a long wooden stage for actors to rehearse and the living room has largely been left bare. A tall stack of checked mattresses heaped in a corner, an equally tall pile of pillows beside it, provide the seating and bedding options. Bookshelves dominated by Shakespeare’s works are the only ornamentation. “When I saw this property, I had absolutely no money to buy it. So I spoke to many artists who very kindly donated their works to me. I auctioned those and used the money to buy this plot,” says Kumar.

Drumming up finances, wasn’t the only challenge. Kumar says he had a rough time convincing the local community to share their space with city dwellers. “We thought it would be easier to reach out to them because we had an open mind. But there was a lot of aggression. It took hard work to make them believe we were their friends,” he says. Over time, the locals accepted his hand of friendship. Today, they play a vital role in maintaining the vast property and nurturing the gulmohar and silver oak trees. “Everything we went through makes sense now. The experience of working here is incomparable. It’s like working in paradise,” says Saple, who has spent long hours at the workspace rehearsing with actors for his play Unself . So far, most of the visitors have been friends or members of the theatre community. Kumar hasn’t set a fee for those using the space yet. Instead, he asks friends staying over to pay a basic amount that covers food and electricity costs. Steady donations from patrons, fans and revenue generated from TCT’s plays also help maintain the space.

Kumar and Saple believe a lot more can be achieved at this centre. They have a romantic vision of writers crouched under trees with pen and paper, actors preparing for their characters by the lake, a fabrication centre where sets and costumes can be developed and more accommodation for artists from various fields. “It’s a place for people seeking solace from the heat and traffic of the city. What you do in a month in Mumbai, you end up doing in a week here. And it’s superior,” says Saple.

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