The Art of Theatre &
The Freedom of Marijuana

Kuljeet Singh observes the development of campus theatre movement in Delhi and says that it has become a discursive field to debate the use and abuse of drugs.

One amazes what to call it???
Freedom of expression or expressed freedom or perhaps Espresso freedemo!!!

All happened in the name of freedom…one puff, a ciggy and rolled up Marijuana.

He claims of kicks and ideas, she claims of rights to emote and execute…all in the name of abused freedom.

Shuffling from one chair to the opposite one in a circle while discussing Dario Fo’s “Archangels don’t play pinball”, the burning grass enveloped in a ciggy reminds me of Jim Stafford’s,

"The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm
And we never knowed what it was called
Some said it was a flower
Some said it was a weed ..."

I wonder whether one wonders or not about the sanctity of the Art we practise or are we just carrying the baggage of being like that…all in the name of freedom.

"With every M he takes
Another friend he makes
Odds are you would like him
If you met him ...
Marijuana Man ..."

And the shows went on at Mandi House with rehearsals, without rehearsals, meager payments, low budgets. Abusive language is in air with the chillam of Hashish. Actors are transported to the realms of their self-made prisons of Bharatmuni, Stanislavsky, Brecht, Camus, Sircar, Stoppard and Tendulkar. Players claim, they play, all in the name of abused freedom.

"When your feet are in the stirrups
and your ass is on the ground
Cause the grass that he's been eating
is the finest stuff around..."

University Theatre scene is improving year after year and is improving the M factor. Gone are the days when college theatre platform is termed as elementary training. With the onset of extension programmes by National School of Drama and change in perspective from merely-academic to performative, the Academia is playing a very pivotal role in grooming the budding m-actors.

Don’t take me wrong. I am not advocating any morality or a way of life, nor am I mourning.

I am celebrating the spirit of Theatre without Marijuana. 

If God had long hair and a goatee
And if his eyes were pretty glazed
If he looked spaced out
Would you buy his story
Would you believe he had an eye infection?