Oxygen Theatre Company Presents

Spinal Cord

An adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold Directed by Deepan sivaraman

Winner of 7 META Awards 2010 including

Best Play, Best Director, Best Choreography

‘Gripping Portrayal..’ The Hindu

‘Magically Real..’ The Week

Bharat Rang Mahotsav, New Delhi 2011 Bahuroopi National Theatre Festival, Mysore 2010 National Theatre Festival, Thiruvananthapuram 2010

www.oxygentheatre.in www.csdeepan.com

Synopsis Spinal Cord narrates the story of an honour killing and its tragic consequences in a township.

Twenty seven years after the incident occurred, the victim’s mother wakes up from a haunt-

ing nightmare with the unpleasant memories of her son.

When the newlywed Angela and Kunjavaran are left alone for their wedding night, Avaran

discovers that his new wife is no virgin. Disgusted, he returns Angela to her family home that

very night, where her humiliated mother beats her savagely and her brother demand to know

her violator, whom she names Nasar.

As Nasar wakes up to the thoughts of the previous night’s wedding revelry, he is unaware of

the slurs that have been cast against him. But with Angela’s brother set upon avenging his

family honour, soon the whole town knows whom he plans to kill, where and when. Through the faded memories of the 80 year old mother, we start to see the tragic story of her

son and the entire consequences of that honour killing. The play is developing through the narration of the mother which often oscillates between past and present.

Director's Note

After all these years of continuous struggle in theatre making, now I think I have clearer rea-

son why should I make theatre. Certainly, not just because I have been trained to be a theatre

maker nor I am unable to do anything else to make my ends meet. I do make theatre because I

want to respond to the gestures of the society I live in, a contemporary living society. I want

to emphasise this, I want to do theatre to challenge, insinuate and communicate with the

society I live in RIGHT NOW. I hope ‘Spinal Cord,’ will make this point more loudly.

Both form-wise and content-wise.

Why a text which reflects Latin American life?

The capitalist arrogance, religious verdigris, heap of injustice, corrupted political system,

criminal police, shamelessly greedy bureaucracy, spiritual mafias and the endless hope for a

better tomorrow of marginalised. What are not in common here?

Why Marquez?

Because I admire his courage to tell the truth, his humanism, the way his characters dream,

the way he breaks the wheel of the time machine. ‘Spinal Cord,’ is not just a murder story of

an unfortunate victim. It’s a story of an unfair society which is struggling to reconnect its

broken spine to reminisce the memories of an avoidable incident which devastated the lives of

many.

Deepan Sivaraman is a visual artist, writer, scholar, scenographer and director, currently

based in London. He was born in Kerala where he took Bachelor of Theatre Arts(Calicut

University, Kerala) Master of Theatre Arts (Pondicherry University) and M. Phil in Theatre

(Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala) and worked as a freelance theatre designer and director

for 10 years. Later he moved to London with Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship to pursue post

graduation in Scenography at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. He has

designed over 30 performances and directed 10 play productions for various theatre compa-

nies and academic institutions in India and Europe. His scenographical and directorial productions have been performed across India at several

theatre festivals including Avignon Fringe, 2007, Edinburgh Fringe, 2006, Prithvi Theatre

Festival Mumbai 2003 & 2006, International Theatre Festival of Kerala 2010, and Bharat Rang

Mahotsav 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2010. His major scenographical and directorial projects

includes ‘Ubu Roy’, (Dir: Maya Tang Berg / 1997) ‘Thathri: Realising Self’ (Dir: J. Shailaja/1999) ‘Verdigris’, (2000), ‘Palm Grove Tales’ (2006) (Dir: Abhilash Pillai)

‘Siddhartha’, (2003), ‘Bhagavadajjukam’ (2001) (Dir: MG Jyothish) ‘One Day in

Ashad,’ (1995), ‘Macbeth’ (1996), ‘Lord of the Flies’, (1997), ‘Kamala’ (2002), ‘The Circle of Seasons’, (2004), ‘Death Dream’, (2005), ‘Spinal Cord’, (Dir: Deepan Sivaraman / 2009)

and ‘Little India’ (Sakunathalam / 2006 / Emily Gray).

Presently he is undertaking a practice- led PhD exploring the topic 'Spatial Identities and Visual Language in Indian Theatre,’ at Wimbledon College of Art, London. He teaches

art and scenography at University of the Arts, London.

Resume

Director, Playwright and Scenographer

Deepan Sivaraman

Oxygen Theatre Company ‘Oxygen’ is a new experimental theatre group based in Thrissur, Ker-ala, in the south of India. It aims to develop theatre productions in col-laboration with various visual artists from the disciplines of theatre, painting, sculpture, installation and video art. Oxygen researches and explores the possibilities of a contemporary modern visual language in Indian theatre which can possibly surmount the multilingual barri-ers. Most of the members of this company have been working in thea-tre over 15 years as freelancers in association with various theatre groups in Kerala such as Root, Thrissur, Theatre Eye, Thrissur, Abhi-naya Theatre Research Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and Ran-gachethana, Thrissur. Although most of the Oxygen members are not academically trained, many of them are quite well known in the Indian theatre scenario for their socio-politically aware and radical approach towards theatre-making.

Oxygen Theatre Company www.oxygentheatre.in