Playing to the gallery Joeanna Rebello Fernandes, TNN | Jun 24, 2012, 02.43AM IST
An announcement made at Sunday mass in the church of St. Anne, Mazagon, caught the attention of parishioners in the way audits on church collections seldom do. A Konkani tiatr —by incumbent king of comedy, Prince Jacob — would be staged mid-July at St. Mary's school hall. The tiatr would be a fund-raiser for the repairs of the 131-year-old Mazagon church. Talk about bringing down the house to restore a roof. The Tiatr, or Konkani musical, was routine fare in the city till the 1970s. Ervell Menezes, a former tiatr critic with Indian Express, recalls at least two new shows a month, staged at Bhangwadi and Patkar Hall, or in church halls and compounds. Rafeeq Baghdadi, city historian, remembers tiatrs even making it to building terraces and streets around Coorgs, the boarding houses for Goan men, in Goan strongholds like Mazagon, Parel and Dhobi Talao. These three-hour, 15-song extravaganzas (an average count), usually cast a critical or commiserative eye on the politics, social mores and cultural currents of Goa. You could expect anything in a tiatr - drag, doublespeak, magic, high drama, bawdiness, wrenching tragedy - with frequent stops for song and dance. On the Konkani stage, the show did go on. It may be news to some to know that tiatr once flourished in Mumbai - this was, after all, the city of its birth. It was on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1892, that the first tiatr, Italian Burgho (a derivative of the opera Italian Boy) debuted at New Alfred Theatre, at the site of the present Police Commissioner's Office. In her essay, Tiatr - An Unlimited Engagement (in the book Reflected in Water, a collection on Goan writing edited by Jerry Pinto) Cynthia Gomes James summarizes the history and attendant culture of the form, and vividly details the days when Mumbai's Catholics would suit up for the latest installation in town - a comedy, tragedy or parody. A resident of Mazagon herself, James writes about tiatrs she'd attended at the selfsame St Mary's hall, and prefaces her description of the show with scenes that led up to it. 'Once that Sunday evening came, it was quite a sight at the bus-stops and taxi stands in Mazagon and the surrounding areas, where you would see gaggles of sharply dressed tiatr fans waiting to be transported to St Mary's High School', she writes. Do these fans still exist? Is tiatr still alive in Mumbai? Just about, says Prince Jacob. The 50-year-old comedian, who writes, directs, produces and plays the lead in his productions (53 in all), says he drops by the city twice a year, and performs close to 15 shows a turn. Jacob (Jacob Fernandes, at birth) is presently the most popular tiatrist in Mumbai, and has multiple shows across venues like Rangsharda in Bandra, Dinanath Mangeshkar Hall at Vile Parle and Dadar's Shivaji Mandir. He's one of the few who pack a crowd. "That's because Mumbai prefers comedy," explains Jacob's event manager, Tony Martins. If this predilection limits their options, their pickings get slimmer due to their reluctance to give new talent a chance. "If a stage name isn't familiar, or if the audience hasn't heard rave reviews of a title via the Goan grapevine, they're loathe to attend a show," complains Martins, who represents several other Goan tiatrists as well. With old 'Bombay' troupes having exited the stage, the only tiatrists in town are visitors from Goa. "Old Bombay stars like singer Alfred Rose and director Prem Kumar (Peter D'Costa) have passed away, and no youngster wants to step up to the plate," Martins says. It's hard to believe till the late 70s, this was where the action was. Its founding legacy aside, it was Bombay that housed the migrant talent that scripted, acted and sung in some of the most memorable tiatrs of the Konkani canon: Joao Agostinho Fernandes's Sundori Cavelchi (the first original Konkani title), Rose Ferns' Ghant, Tujem Durig Mojea Bhatan and Axea by C Alvares and Prem Kumar's Kakut . "Most of the professional troupes lived and worked in Bombay," says Tomazinho Cardozo, former president of the Tiatr Academy of Goa. No doubt their themes and plots reflected Goan realities, but these were realities their audiences, both in Bombay and Goa, knew well. "Prior to the '80s, troupes performing in Goa were largely amateurs. Save the group Young Stars of Goa, all other professional artistes arrived from Bombay," says Cardozo. The annual Tiatr Festival instated in 1974 by Goa's Kala Academy reversed the tide. And now, it is troupes from Goa that make brief appearances in Bombay. Infrequently, at best. "A director has to spend at least Rs 1.5 lac to bring a title to Mumbai," says Martins. "The expense includes the troupe's salary, permits, hall rentals and boarding and lodging costs. Save those like Prince Jacob, whose tickets sell out before he even arrives in the city, others cannot be sure of even recovering their investment." Although the Tiatr Academy offers a grant of Rs 25,000 to troupes visiting Mumbai (conditional to staging at least five shows here), there are not many takers. Cardozo feels it's an initial investment tiatrists have to make. They don't realise they can even run up 100 shows if they take that preliminary leap, he says. But if he chides Goan tiatrists for their low confidence, he rebukes event managers in Mumbai for their partisanship. "They will only promote the established players, never the new ones. It's because they want easy money." Now surely there's a tiatr somewhere on the subject. On July 15, Prince Jacob's Amacha Garanth Tiatr will show at Rangsharda, Bandra (10.15am, 2.15pm) and St Mary's School Hall, Mazagon (7.15pm) -- Download Dr Andre Rafael Fernandes' PhD thesis on the tiatr, published here with the Tiatr Association of Goa: http://www.tiatracademygoa.com/rafael-final-apr3-noon.pdf