9| Props

End October 2023 Sue Rees comes in. Sue has been working with us for over 20 years making footage of the Kattaikkuttu Sangam’s festivals, performances and life at the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam. She has also made a film about Rajagopal which has won several prices.

Sue teaches animation and set design at Bennington College, Vermont, USA. She has promised to help out making two props that are essential to The Gaze: a palanquin for Jacob Haafner and a photo camera for Quintina. Photography was introduced to India around 1860. The camera is very much about the gaze and the ‘other’, but we need to find out what kind of camera was used in the 1870s, the period in which the play is situated. Additionally, we wonder what kind of word would have been used to refer to the images — where they already then called ‘photos’? The palanquin for us is a colonial symbol: the white man carried by 4 or 6 bearers, but also can create scope for a bit of comedy as the latter can literally shake up the white man’s comfort a bit whilst they carry him along.

As our budget is limited we try to source most materials locally and for free: bamboo from our garden for the palanquin, cheap wood from boxes in which apples are packaged from Sri Ganapathy Sweets Bakery and Fruits for the camera, in addition to a small beaker of red-copper donated by the understanding owner (a lady) of Dorai Pachaiyappan, a local dealer in brass vessels. After elaborate discussion we decide that the palanquin can be a bit ‘fake’. Jacob can walk along with the bearers if we can hide his feet behind a curtain. In this way the palanquin will become lighter and more manoeuvrable on a small stage. And we do not have sufficient performers who can double as bearers. The mridangam-player in The Gaze, Devendra, also happens to be a carpenter. He is entrusted to create both these props based on the research and drawings made by Sue.

We look forward to having Sue back at the beginning of January to film the final rehearsals and the first performance of The Gaze.