Telling tales through ‘Therukkoothu’

N Vinoth Kumar

Published Date: Mar 12, 2013

It was in the month of March in 1996 that the short story ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ penned by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was staged in Therukkoothu form during the Fifth International Drama Festival held in Bogota, Columbia.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an eminent journalist and writer in Colombia, has penned many popular novels such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera among others. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is the story of an old man with wings, who comes to a village called Macondo on a rainy day.

How the people of that village react to the old man forms the whole plot. The village Macondo is a fictitious town created by Marquez in many of his novels and short stories. Though the story is written for children, it has some valuable message for adults as well. Hence, the story is regarded as the best example for magical realism.

Sambandan, son of Purisai Duraisamy Kannappa Thambiran, is a fifth generation artiste of the Purisai School of Therukkoothu. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi award last year. He has staged many popular plays such as Indrajit, Panchali Sabatham, veteran playwright Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle as Vellai Vattam, among others in Therukkoothu form.

He staged Marquez’s story ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ in Tamil as Periya Siragudaiya Oru Vayothiga Manidhan along with Columbian artiste Rolf Abderhalden’s Mapa Teatro, at the Fifth International Drama Festival held at Bogota.

Speaking to City Express, K Sambandan, reminisces the efforts taken for staging a short story in Therukkoothu form, the days of practice and how the plays were well-received among the audiences.

“We got introduced to Columbian artist Rolf Abderhalden of Mapa Teatro at Attakkalari theatre festival held in Kerala in 1992. He was attracted to our Therukkoothu form and decided to work along with us,” he said.

He added, “In 1996, he came to Purisai with his theatre group and stayed here for three months. After many discussions, we chose to stage Marquez’s story in Therukkoothu form. My father Kannappa Thambiran had taken such an initiative for the first time in staging literature from other culture. Folklore scholar M D Muthukumarasamy translated it into Tamil and my elder brother Kannappa Kasi took care of productions.” He also played a role as Kattiyakkaaran in that play.

Kasi told City Express, “While there were no details about Macondo in that story, we also read other stories of Marquez and collected the details. At that time, Kal Kuthirai, a literary magazine run by writer Konangi, had brought out an edition specially about Marquez’s work. That helped us lot in writing Koothu Panuval (songs).”

Later, the play was staged in Chennai and was well-received. On the birth centenary of Purisai Duraisamy Kannappa Thambiran, the Therukkoothu form of Marquez’s story was published by Bodhi Vanam as ‘Periya Sirakugudaiya Oru Vayothiga Manidhan’ in 2011.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express 

          Newyorker.com (Marquez's image) 

          Narthaki.com (Sambandan's image)