2 | David and Goliath

Kattaikkuttu is a Tamil-language-based, physical and vocal form of open-air ensemble theatre (de Bruin 2023). The Sangam is a grassroots theatre organization based in Punjarasantankal Village in Tamil Nadu. From 2002 until the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the Sangam has made Kattaikkuttu theatre training and onstage performances accessible to girls and young women some of whom now perform professionally. The pandemic and a subsequent lack of funding forced us to discontinue this training.

A little bit of background: India’s performing arts scene is characterized by a continuum that distinguishes (mostly urban) classical performing art forms, such as Karnatic music and Bharata Natyam dance, from a wide range of (mostly rural) folk performances. As one of such folk forms, Kattaikkuttu finds a place at the lower end of this continuum in terms of prestige and social standing.

The classical performing arts tend to be the prerogative of high-caste Brahmins who are both its practitioners and consumers. Folk art forms have the support of the ‘folk’, that is people belonging to the lower social strata and castes of the Indian society. Being part of the informal sector of the economy Kattaikkuttu performances fall outside the purview of the government. This has given rise to the assumption that the theatre is on the verge of extinction. Nothing could be further from the truth with professional theatre companies performing between 100-150 shows during the year. These all-night events are commissioned and paid for collectively by rural patrons and spectators (de Bruin 2019, 51-56).

A Kattaikkuttu performer needs to combine singing and the memorization of a large corpus of text with speaking, acting and a movement style that demands high energy in performances that have an all-night (8 hours) duration. In spite of this complexity, outside its own context Kattaikkuttu lacks cultural and social capital. The profession is often seen as a physically demanding form of labour  — something that in India is equated with a low or no caste identity. Kattaikkuttu’s first generation actresses face a double stigma: firstly, because they transgress social conventions by exposing themselves to the public (male) gaze  and, secondly, because they are exponents of a rural theatre form that itself is stigmatized (de Bruin 2023, 114-115).

Kattaikkuttu companies have a running repertory of about 25 plays in which versatile actors are able to act multiple roles. The number of performers in a company is kept at a minimum in order to pay its members a maximum share of the performance fee. In contrast, in its 2016 production of La Bayadère DNB had 70 dancers on the stage most of whom, or so I assume, must have had contracts and paid fixed salaries. Collaborating with DNB, a globally renowned  institution feels a bit like David confronting Goliath. Classical ballet and folk Kattaikkuttu differ not only because they took shape in different cultures and traversed different cultural trajectories, they also happen in entirely different performance spaces and occupy unequal positions within the cultural-political power framework that governs today’s performing arts scape, both in India and in The Netherlands.

References

Bruin, Hanne M. 2023. Kaṭṭaikkūttu: A Rural Theatre Tradition in South India. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

Bruin, Hanne M. (2019) “Karnatic meets Kattaikkuttu: Notes on an unusual cultural conversation.” TDR: The Drama Review 63:3 (T243) Fall 2019: 50-73.