TIATR 4U

THE BIGINNING OF GOAN TIATR

Goan Tiatr took birth in neighboring Bombay, almost 119 years back i.e. in 1892. A young man called Lucazinho Ribeiro hailing from Sokolwaddo, Assagao in Bardez Taluka can be called the innovator of the Tiatr because he along with Joao Agostinho Fernandes and others staged the first Tiatr performance on the occasion of Easter on 17th April, 1892. The name of the first Tiatr presented was “Italian Bhurgo“. This Tiatr was written and directed by Lucasinho Ribeiro hence he is the inventor of this unique dramatic form.

    
However it was Joao Agostinho Fernandes hailing from Margao, Salcete who wrote and directed numerous Tiatrs and gave a high standard of excellence to the Tiatr Stage. He even published his Tiatr manuscripts in book form over hundred years back. He was rightly called the ‘Father of Tiatr’.

There is no documentation at all which gives a clear picture of the staging of the first Tiatr in 1892. It is only in 1943, on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of the Tiatr that Joao Agostinho Fernandes wrote a letter, which was published in the issue of ‘Ave Maria’ dated 28th November, 1943. In this letter, Joao Agostinho Fernandes describes how Lucazinho Ribeiro got a job in an Italian Opera Company and how he wrote the first tiatr ‘Italian Bhurgo’. He also in this letter makes a mention of one Caitaninho who also assisted Mr. Rebeiro besides him to stage the First Tiatr in 1892. Mr. Fernandes also informs through this letter how jealousy crept in and how different dramatic troupes were formed, thereby creating disunity among the tiatr artistes in those years. Although  Joao Agostinho Fernandes went all out to develop the Tiatr  and brought high standard to the Tiatr Stage and whom people lovingly called Father of Tiatr shows his greatness of in the last paragraph of his letter in which he says “Undoubtedly the credit goes to Late Mr. Lucazinho Ribeiro on the Tiatr stage. I bow my head to Mr. Ribeiro, who was my guide and teacher and because of his guidance I still continue to present Tiatrs of good values to the Tiatr lovers”.                         
         
This letter is the only source, which provides information about the innovation of the Tiatr and the staging of the first Tiatr. The information given in this letter is authentic because the letter was written by a person who was directly involved in staging the first Tiatr “Italian Bhurgo” in 1892.

Why did such a dramatic form come into existence? It was a fact that before Tiatr was born, the entertainment to the Goan masses was provided by folk dramatic forms namely Zagor & Khell. Zagor was popular in the north of Goa whereas Khell, which was also known as Fell, was popular in the south of Goa.

Infact Zagor & Khell entertained the Goan masses for a long time, Whenever Goans migrated to other parts of the country for employment they took with them these forms of entertainment. However as time passed the standard of Zagor as well as Fell deteriorated due to introduction of elements of vulgarity to create fun and cheap entertainment for the audience. This decline of quality in staging Zagor and Khell prevented many people from witnessing these forms of entertainment. Educated people stopped patronizing the Zagor as well as the Khell.

Goans were in need of good and qualitative entertainment and thus the Tiatr was born. Shri Lucazinho Ribeiro was one of the few youths in Assagao who knew to read and write English. Being unemployed, he used to give tutions to others in English. He was very much interested in cultural activities from his young age. He was a good singer too and enjoyed singing Konkani & English songs.

During that time Italian troupes were touring important cities of India such as Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras to stage Italian Operas. They used to come with the required number of artistes’ in order to reduce the cost of transport, accommodation, etc. When in India, they used to employ Indians mostly as back stage artistes. Lucazinho Ribeiro, having love for dramatic art, tried his luck to get employment in one of the Italian dramatic troupes. He got a job as a back stage artiste. The troupe was staging the opera called “Italian Boy”. When the troupe left India, Lucazinho Ribeiro bought the costumes used in the play with an intention to produce a similar drama in Konkani. Accordingly, based on the same story of “Italian Boy” he write a “Teatro” in Konkani and called it “Italian Bhurgo”

As there were many different scenes in this “Teatro” and as it required different stage sets, in order not to waste time, he thought of dropping the curtain and introducing songs and dances in front of the curtain. This was needed to entertain the audience while the Stage Setting was being done behind the curtain. These songs and dances did not have any relevance to the theme of the play ‘Italian Bhurgo’. This is how a new concept of dramatic form called Teatro came into existence on 17th April, 1892.

Tiatr is a unique form of dramatic art. It is unique because it cannot be considered a musical drama or a prose drama. It has music and singing but it is not a musical drama.

The plot of a Tiatr is normally divided into 6 or 7 parts, each part is called a “Pordho”. In between these Pordhes there are songs which are called “Kantaram”. Normally there are 2 or 3 Kantaram in between every two Pordhes. This means that there are at least 12 to 15 Kantaram in the Tiatr.

The speciality of the Tiatr lies in the story of the Tiatr which is mostly based on one particular theme whereas each Kantaram are based on a different subjects. Accordingly one particular subject is presented through the story of the Tiatr whereas 12 to 14 different subjects are tackled through 12 to 14 kantaram in the Tiatr. It is this aspect of the Tiatr that makes the Tiatr unique compared to other forms of dramatic art.

Joao Agostinho Fernandes who was called as the Father of Tiatr is responsible to give direction and guidance to write original script. He was a farsighted person having lot of creativity in him. His original scripts include Cavelchi Sundori, Revolta de Satari, and Bhattkara. Kunnbi Jaki, Bebdo, Dotichem Kestanv and Vavraddi. One can see that  Joao Agostinho Fernandes touched the subjects like caste system, ill effects of drinking,
problem of dowry system and dignity of labor much before these issues became serious problems in the society. Karachiwala wrote a Tiatr Kustoba and A.R. Rocha, produced excellent scripts in Dubhavi Ghorkarn and Mog ani Krim.

The songs – Kantaram – sung between the Pordhes of the tiatr are equally responsible for the success of the Tiatr. Otherwise the audience passes comments like “the play was excellent but the songs were not good or the songs were interesting but not the play”. Only when the play as well as the songs are good, then only the audience will say that the Tiatr was good.

The songs presented in the tiatr should also be of varied nature, i.e. Solos, Duets, Trios, Quartets and so on. They should also include comedy songs.
The production of a song includes (a) Composition of lyrics, (b) setting the music to the lyrics, and (c) singing of songs. In other language we find that there are lyrists who only compose the lyrics, there are musicians who only set the music to these lyrics, and persons having sweet voice to sing them. Rarely you will find an artiste who composes the lyrics, sets it to music and also sings. But on the Tiatr stage, it is totally different. The same artistes compose, set the music and sings too. Only the accompanying music is arranged by the musician.This attitude of our artistes has suppressed the true development of Konkani song – Kantar.

Comedy is essential in the Tiatr if one wishes to make it a grand success. I have not seen any tiatr so far achieving success without the elements of comedy in it. You name any successful tiatr and you find that there is enough comedy in it.  The comedy in the tiatr should be linked to the main story of the Tiatr. All the artistes whom I have named above as good script writers, have seen that the comedy sequences formed part and parcel of the plot of the Tiatr.

Any drama in any language, in any state or country can be categorized into:-
(a) Historical, (b) Social (c) Political & (d) Religious. Are there enough Tiatrs staged in all these categories?

a) Compared to other categories, historical tiatrs are negligible. Joao Agostinho Fernandes in late 1890’s wrote a tiatr Revolta de Sattari. The script of this Tiatr is not available but from the name I presume that it must be based on the historical facts. There may be one or more tiatrs in this category.

           The reason for not having enough historical Tiatrs is that the Tiatr writers were
           mostly Catholics and they did their education either in Portuguese or English.
           Due to this they never came in contact with our history i.e. the Indian
           history. Hence there are not many Tiatrs based on historical events.
       

b) Since the innovation of Tiatr most of the original scripts dealt with social issues such as evils of caste system, dowry problems and alcoholism, unity and disunity in the family, value of education, etc., Present social problems like drug addiction, AIDS, Protection of environment are also focussed through the tiatrs. Joao Agostinho Fernandes, Saib Rocha, C. Alvares, M. Boyer, Remmie Colaco, Aristides Dias, Minguel Rod, Prem Kumar and others have excelled in presenting Tiatrs on social themes.

c) Political Tiatrs were produced in good numbers only after the Liberation of Goa. Nelson Afonso produced two tiatrs namely Salazar and Nationalist. The Staging of these Tiatrs in different parts of Goa really took the Tiatr audience by surprise due to Afonso’s courage in exposing political realities.

d) Religious Tiatrs were normally staged in the Lent season. Souzalino is the only artiste who directed religious tiatrs with excellence. Sat Dukhi, Panch Mister Horkache, Bhag Josechi Khorvont are some of the best religious tiatrs of  Souzalino.

There is no doubt that the most popular dramatic form in Goa is the Tiatr. Since 1892 to 2011,  a period of hundred and nineteen years, it is observed that Tiatr is getting more and more popular day after day and year after year. No feast, even in the small wards of the villages in Goa, could be complete without staging a Tiatr. Each troupe stages the performance of its Tiatr at least many times in different parts of Goa. There are tiatr directors who have successfully staged over 200 performances of their tiatrs There is no other dramatic form be it Marathi drama or Konkani drama or English drama which can match the popularity of Tiatr  in Goa. It is for this reason that I consider Konkani Tiatr – The Stage of Goa.