Characteristic features of the Indian performance. Theater of India. Book miniature of India

Kathakali (or Kathakali)- This is an ancient Indian dance and drama theater of the south of India (mainly the state of Kerala), which arose in the 17th century and has survived to this day. Once I saw this show on TV and I thought, "What is this nonsense?" But time passed, I grew up, gained experience, flew to Kerala, went to the theater and was surprised - how "this" turned out to be an interesting and funny sight!

Real "katakali" lasts for hours and it is ... a difficult and complex art that is difficult for a foreigner to understand, but an hour and a half for a tourist is quite nothing, especially if you come early and watch the actors prepare for the performance ...

The roots of the theater TOattacked lie in the folk dances and performances performed by Kerala peasants on the long Indian evenings before the advent of cinema, television and Bollywood. At that time, there was no TV or the Internet, and it was necessary to somehow have fun, so they came up with their own theater - Kathakali, which has now become not just art, but also a "national treasure"!

And, if our theater begins with a hanger, then the Indian theater "katakali" begins with a dressing room .... And this is where we will now go.

I arrived at the theater an hour and a half before the start of the performance to watch and take pictures of the actors' preparation process. Here, in Kerala, the actors do not hide in the dressing rooms, but paint on the stage, and anyone who comes can watch the transformation process in advance. ordinary people in the actors "Kathakali"

There are not many actors in the theater, and I would even say little. In the performance that I saw, there were only four of them, and they all directed a "marafet" on the stage, transforming from ordinary people into "demons", "gods" and ordinary people ...

First, everyone paints himself ... for example, in "Demon" ...

Or into a woman

Or one of the Indian Gods

And so an hour passes ... or even two ... In a stuffy theater, with a temperature over 40 without airing ... Fresh air, drink water and take a shower ... And then bam and - "call"! As in our theater. Ringing and calling the audience into the hall - the performance begins !!! So what ... let's go watch)

Plot Kathakali, as a rule, scenes from ancient Indian epics like "Mahabharata", "Ramayana", etc. For us, "non-local", these are generally completely incomprehensible stories, but to watch ... it is interesting! Interesting, because it is not clear! All the more meaning Kathakali- not in "sense", but in "presentation".

I filmed the show itself, not a photo. Moreover, it is very dark in the theater and it is extremely difficult to photograph, and it is strictly forbidden to use a flash. I will edit the video soon and will definitely post it, but for now I can only show the main characters of the performance. This is how, for example, the main one looked negative character, type "Demon".

And so - kind)

And for "settling" the situation between good and evil I came down from heaven myself Krishna

By and large, it doesn't matter what history is shown in the theater. Much more interesting is - HOW they do it! This is art! Yes, somewhere funny, somewhere incomprehensible, somewhere delusional, somewhere stupid ... but still you sit and watch ... because, damn it, I wonder how it will end ???

And by the way, the real "katakali" is being performed ONLY men who are trained from an early age in special theater schools. And the most important thing in the Kathakali theater is this is pantomime and sign language , not dances, songs and dialogues. Perhaps that is why you can watch the theater completely without knowing the language, "read" the emotions and gestures of the actors and understand what is at stake. You can't even imagine how many emotions these actors can show with only one ... EYES !!!

Traditionally, "katakali" is performed in a special place on a moonlit (!) Night and lasts from dusk to dawn. To withstand this, in my opinion, is almost unrealistic. The couple of hours that I was at the show was more than enough for me. At the same time, all night after the performance, I heard "catacal music" in a dream and raved about the showdown between "Demon" and "Krishna" ...

But still you will not understand this until you see it yourself ... So either go to Kerala and see for yourself, or ... wait for my video from India)))
Answering the question of the "top" I unambiguously state: Katakali is an art that is unique in its kind!

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India has the longest and richest theater tradition in the world, dating back at least 5,000 years. The origins of Indian theater are closely related to the country's ancient rituals and seasonal festivals. Natyashastra (2000 BC - 4th century AD) was the earliest and most complex treatise on drama and dance in the entire world. Traditionally, in "Natyashastra" it is asserted that the Indian theater has a divine origin, and its origins are attributed to "Natyaveda" - the sacred book of drama created by Lord Brahma.

In "Natyashastra" various traditions of dance, pantomime and drama were brought together and codified. Natyashastra describes ten classifications of drama, ranging from one-act to ten-act. No other book of ancient times in the world contains such an exhaustive study of drama as Natyashastra. It has been guided by playwrights, directors and actors for thousands of years, since in Bharata Muni these three were inseparable in creating the Sanskrit drama Natyaka, the name of which comes from the word meaning dance. In traditional Hindu drama, the expression of the content of the play was achieved through music and dance, as well as through action, therefore any production was essentially a combination of opera, ballet and drama.

According to legend, the very first dance was performed in heaven, when the gods, having defeated the demons, decided to celebrate their victory. Since ancient times, Hindu theorists have staged two types of dance performances: lokadharmi (realistic), in which dancers on stage displayed human behavior, and natyadharmi (ordinary), which used stylized gestures and symbols (this type of dance performance was considered more artistic than realistic) ...

Theater in India began with a descriptive form, so recitation, singing and dancing have become indispensable elements of theater. This emphasis on narrative elements led theater in India to embrace all other forms of literature and visual arts in its physical manifestation: literature, pantomime, music, dance, movement, painting, sculpture and architecture - all mixed together and began to be called "natya" or "theater".

Back in the Vedic period c. In India, theatrical performances were played out in the sky. At the beginning of our era, the first small theater premises appeared in the country. They did not have decorations, theatrical props were extremely poor, they were replaced by other artistic conventions: a certain gait, facial expressions, and gesticulation feebly.

Much attention was paid to musical arrangement performances. However, unlike modern Indian performances, which, according to European theatergoers, are oversaturated with singing, in ancient Indian monologues and dialogues the artists recited or chanted, but did not sing. A notable feature of the ancient Indian theater was. His penchant for melodrama and pathos is inherent in the contemporary theatrical art in the country. Tragic plots were not allowed on the stage for those considerations that the tragic is enough in real life.

The theater was extremely popular in. Ancient. India, especially among the intelligentsia, but the artist's profession did not belong to the prestigious, was considered "vile", the artists themselves were sudras

The ancient Indians said: "He who knows neither music, nor literature, nor any other art is not a man, but cattle, although he has neither a tail nor horns." Music played in their lives important role... M. The art of professional musicians and dancers amused themselves with the Rajas. And the nobles, and in Indian myths, did not shy away from this entertainment and the gods, who were served by heavenly music and dancers.

About the development of ancient Indian musical culture tells the treatise. Natyashastra, probably compiled in the first centuries of our era. He testifies that at that time a well-developed musical system already existed in the country, which later formed the basis of Indian "classical" musicians.

The Indian melody amazes a European with its exoticism. There are many semitones and even quarter tones in the Indian scale. Indian melodies are classified by horns - a specific sequence of five or more tones that form the basis of the melody. Each para has its own emotional load, it symbolizes joy, fun, love, peace, fear, etc. There are ragas "morning", "afternoon", "evening", etc. *. Staroind Iyski melodies are devoid of a harmonic basis and are based on rhythm percussion instruments. An important feature Ancient Indian music is also that a musician in a family is always an improviser. He performs a key musical phrase, and then endlessly varies it, and each time in a new way, so that each performance of the same melody is unique.

Ancient Indians created a number of musical instruments, the most common of which was similar to the ancient Egyptian lyre of wine. The musicians also played the flute, other reed and percussion instruments.

Developed in. Ancient. India is also the art of vocal. Singing was most often a variation of a simple melody that literally boiled down to a single musical phrase.

The Indian art of dance has changed little over the centuries. In ancient dances, musical rhythm and gestures also played a major role, and almost every part of the body of a dancer or dancer took part in the dance, a small movement of the little finger or eyebrow told the initiate of the secrets of this art a whole story. With the most complex code for the positions of his hands and fingers, he conveyed a wide gamut of emotions, excitedly talked about various events in the life of gods, people, zhivoarin.

The art of Indian dance is very complex. It took years of hard work to master it. Therefore, in. Ancient. Indian dances have always been performed by professionals of the social taboo on this type of entertainment in ch. Libin for centuries, it seems, did not exist (their only priesthood was tsuralos).

Indian theater is one of the oldest theaters in the world: its theory and practice were developed around the 2nd century. BC NS. He is not only original, but also carried this originality through the thickness of the centuries. The mastery of classical Indian theater is so filigree that it is almost impossible to master it for representatives of other countries and peoples. V general outline Indian theater can be historically and factually subdivided into classical Sanskrit drama, folk theater and European style theater.

Theatrical art India originated in the 1st and 2nd centuries. BC NS. and its creation is attributed to a sage named Bharata. According to legend, the god of war Indra asked the creator Brahma to come up with entertainment that would please all people. Brahma extracted from the four "Vedas" recitation, chanting, playing and aesthetics and taught these arts to Bharata, commanding him with his hundred sons to protect and establish this art on earth. Brahma formulated the main tasks of the theater: to teach and to entertain. The earliest pieces that have come down to us are written in the classical language of India, Sanskrit, and allow us to draw a conclusion. At that time, drama was a developed heat of theatrical art. Favorite subjects of the plays are folk tales and legends, heroic deeds of royal sages and love.

According to the treatise, there are four main expressive means- angika, mudra, vacika, aharya. Angika is the language of conventional gestures of hands, fingers, lips, neck and legs. Mudra is a gesture that has symbolic meaning. There are twenty-four basic gestures, each with over thirty different meanings. Vachika - diction, intonation and speech tempo that create a certain mood. Aharya is the canonized color and details of costume and makeup. For the gods and celestial maidens - orange makeup, for the sun and Brahma - gold, for the Himalayas and the Ganges - white. Demons and dwarfs wear antlers - deer, ram, or buffalo. In humans, makeup depends on their social status, caste affiliation. The representatives of the higher castes - the brahmanas and kshatriyas - have red makeup, the sudras have dark blue, the kings have soft pink, and the hermits have purple.

The earliest evidence of the emergence of theatrical art was a bronze statuette dancing girl, found during excavations in the city of Mohenjo Daro in the III millennium BC. NS. It was the ritual dance that became the core around which the Indian classical theater... The model for the dancer was the image of the dancing Shiva, in whose dance the creative and destructive energy of the Universe was manifested. V Ancient India theatrical performances are part of a holiday dedicated to gods, for example, the god of thunder Indra. In his honor, a "banner" was erected, which symbolized a tree brought from the forest. After the ceremony, he was drowned in a river to give strength to land and water.

Component theatrical action, sattvika are the states of mind transmitted by the actor (bhava), and the mood of the audience after what they see on the stage (rasa). The actor must get used to the feelings of his character and be able to convey the subtlest feelings, for which one must master the acting technique. The ability to shed a tear, to show how the skin of the face tightens from the cold, how shivers run through the whole body from fright, that is, mastery of acting technique can cause a certain mood in the viewer. The entire aesthetic concept of Indian performing arts is based on the teachings of bhava and rasa.

The highest goal of the performance was to achieve RACE - aesthetic pleasure arising from the skillful acting of the actor. Seven basic feelings (comic, pathos, anger, heroism, horror, hatred, amazement) were to be embodied by the actors. Characteristic feature Indian theater is the unity of music. singing and dancing. Statuette of a dancing girl (Mohenjo Daro III thousand BC).

In Indian culture, there is a division of theater into several types: This form of performing arts had a storyline based on epic and Indian mythology. The acting profession in India was not respected. This is due to the fact that the artist portrayed the gods in a funny and obscene guise. The actors were humiliated and considered the lower strata of society. But in order to gain mastery in this profession, one had to be a fairly educated person; The courtier. Performances were staged in the courtyards of the nobility for entertainment purposes.

In the south of the country, another form of mystery theater developed, associated with the art of temple storytellers - chakiars. They recited verses in Sanskrit and then explained the text in the local language. The storyteller used facial expressions and gestures. Later, he was replaced by an actor, accompanying the recitation with dances. The performance was named kutiyattam (Skt. "Collective dance). In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. NS. classical Indian theater emerged. Its heyday falls on the 1st - 9th centuries. when were created famous works Sanskrit drama. The most famous playwrights are Bhasa, Kalidasa, Shudraka. The dates of their lives are approximate, the information of researchers sometimes diverges for centuries. Of the thirteen works of Bhasa (II or III centuries), Vasavadata Appearing in a Dream, a play about the king's love for his wife Vasavadata, is considered the best.

Ashvaghosha is considered the first Indian playwright (2nd century AD). But the greatest flowering of classical drama reached under Kalidasa (IV century AD). In addition to Kalidasa, the names of five other famous playwrights are mentioned: Shudraka, Harsha, Visakhadatta, Bhasa and Bhavabhutn. Classical drama reached its peak in the 4th-5th centuries. n. NS. By the VIII century. she fell into decay. However, even today the oldest traditional Kerala theater kudiyat continues to live there, while maintaining its own school of training for actors.

Kalida sa (क ल द स, Kālidāsa IAST, literally "Servant of the Goddess Kali") is the greatest playwright and poet of ancient India, who wrote in Sanskrit. The works created by Kalidasa symbolize the flowering of classical Indian culture. The drama of Kalidasa "Shakuntala" was one of the first works of oriental literature, translated into European languages ​​and introduced Europe to the literature of the East. The dramas and other works of Kalidasa do not contain any direct indications of the time of their composition. The mention of Greek slaves testifies to a relatively late time, and the forms of prakrit in the speeches of some actors indicate a large chronological distance separating them from the language of the inscriptions of King Ashoka, or Piyadasi. It is doubtful, however, that Kalidasa lived in the eleventh century, since the writings of other writers of this century are clearly indicative of literary decline, while the dramas of Kalidasa represent the culmination of Indian poetry.

The authorship of the famous Clay wagon (presumably 4th century) is attributed to King Shudraka. The play was performed on the stages of many theaters around the world even in the 20th century. The play tells about the love of the courtesan actress for the brahmana Charudatta - a man belonging to the highest caste and also married. This plot went beyond the traditional. After long trials, the lovers were reunited.

The pinnacle of the drama of Ancient India is the drama of Shakuntala Kalidasa (in some sources, Sakuntala). The plot of the play about the loyalty and love of Shakuntala to King Dushyanta came from the Mahabharata, but was supplemented and expanded by Kalidasa for greater dramatic development of the storyline. The performance was preserved not only in modern theaters India, but also bypassed the stages of theaters around the world: it was staged in Berlin; in 1914 in chamber theater A. Tairova; in 1957 - in Beijing.

A special form of Indian theater is classical dance, involving word and sometimes chanting. It was in the dance that the god Shiva created the world. In one of the temples there is a famous image of the dancing Shiva. The columns depict 108 of his dancing poses, which are mentioned in the theatrical treatise Natyashastra. One of the most ancient styles, bharat natya, has come down to us thanks to devasi - temple dancers who dedicated their lives to a deity. With the passage of time, dance became a means of entertainment for the feudal aristocracy, and the name "devasi" became synonymous with courtesan. The dance was a combination of nritya (story dance) and snritta (pure dance). Then an interlude (paddam) was performed, in which the dancer conveys with gestures the content of a song performed in Sanskrit.

Classical drama (nataka) had ten canonical varieties: 1) nataka itself with a plot from popular legends; 2) prokarana with a plot invented or revised by the author; 3) samvakara with a plot from the legends of gods and demons; 4) ihmrit with a story borrowed or partially composed by the author about a hero who seeks to unite with his beloved; 5) dima with a borrowed story about various mythological creatures; 6) Vyayoga is a one-act drama with a borrowed plot of a ko matic content; 7) Anka is a one-act drama with the author's plot of a pathetic or morally moralizing nature; 8) Prahasana is a one act farce play with a plot from everyday life; 9) bhana is a one-act play with an author's plot of heroic content, performed by one actor; 10) withi is a one-act piece that differs from bhana in the number of performers (two to three).

In the 15th century. v North India the classical dance style of kathak was formed. By that time, a state was formed in which the Muslim conquerors assimilated, and giving impetus to the fusion of Muslim and Hindu art, Kathak was the result of the fusion of two cultures. The dance was performed in Persian costumes, but it was a continuation of the legends about the love of Vadhi and Krishna. In the 17th century. Kathakali theater is born in the South of India. A pantomime dance drama tells the story of gods and demons, their love and hate. The performance is given either in the courtyard of the temple or in the open air. Its spectators are the peasants of the surrounding villages, who leave their nightly worries and affairs, barely hearing the sound of a drum. Theatrical performance is given on a black background of the night.