Marina Constantinescu, „Nu mă lăsa să uit vreodată",
în România literară, nr. 29-30/2024

Imboldul acestei noi călătorii în misterele cunoașterii de sine, prin mijlocirea unui discurs scenic hieratic, e preluat și reinterpretat original pornind de la poemul hindus Bhagavad Gita (traducerea Ramona Tripa), parte din epopeea Mahabharata. Căutarea sacralității pierdute primește nuanțări exponențiale prin energiile celor șapte interpreți puse în serviciul unor revelații ritualice. [...] Actorii puși să declame monologuri fac minuni. Dau totul din ei. Limbajul corpului e esențial. Prestația lor tinde spre formula actorului total (care face de toate). Interpretează dramatic modulându-și glasul, cântă vocal și la instrumente, mimează, dansează, țipă și se războiește cu propria conștiință a insului agresat de destin.

Adrian Țion, La sfârșit de stagiune teatrală: Slujitorii Frumuseții,
în Făclia, 10 iulie 2024

ȘEFANA POP-CURSEU in dialogue with ҪAĞLAR YIĞITOĞULLARI

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: You are at your second production at the National Theatre in Cluj, and, as you said, the Servants of Beauty, inspired by the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita, does in a way continue The Quest, that was inspired by The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar. How come? Can you explain what you meant?

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: In the beginning I had not thought about this, but when you are busy with an issue, the situation brings you another kind of dimensions and perspectives. We were so much in this idea of finding our own leaders in ourselves, when rehearsing for The Quest... Actually, this is a very Shamanic and Sufi understanding of the way of living and finding your own leader. In Islam Sufism it is called "Ana'l-Haqq", meaning "I am the God", "I am the God of myself". In Shamanism it is said that you are the Shaman of your life and of yourself. So, this was one of the constant things I was telling to the performers. And then, I started questioning in my mind "So now, what is the responsibility of the leader?" We found that we are the individuals, the leaders of our lives but this is not an easy thing, this issue comes with responsibility and from today's perspective, all the politicians are using this in a really horrible manner, with all these constant wars. So, I wanted to continue with the same group of people, seeing them as the leaders of their society, where they have to be confronted with the difficulties of their position.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: Making choices?

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: Yes, the constant possibility of choice, this is one of the issues in the performance too: the responsibility of choice as an artist, as an individual. So, this was the first motivation for me to continue in this way.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: And so, you chose as a starting point this antique Hindu text, very well known in Indian culture, Bhagavad Gita being one of the fundamental texts from the Mahabharata. Why did you make this choice?

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: As a maker, am not interested in the details of the performances that I am doing, but only in the plot, in the story. For both projects, The Quest and The Servants of Beauty, I am a hundred per cent the author. In the previous one there was not a single word from the original poem, I wrote everything, and this time, there are seven sets of questions, six from the Mahabharata and in Arjuna's first monologue, we have three sentences from Bhagavad Gita. I wrote the rest. As an author, I don't want to know much about the details, the dialogues of the initial story, I like to have my own space to fill, where I can express myself, with my own experience and my own words. That's how I fantasise, I write something and then go into the details as a maker, a director, a performer or whatever it is.

For me, this story is quite similar to that of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, when Raskolnikov kills the woman, and then, still, we keep arguing if he had the right to kill her or not. So here it is the same situation with Arjuna: he had to go to war, but ethically it was not a good thing to do, and still, it is very controversial, ethically, philosophically, but on the other side it has a beautiful dimension. Every Indian person knows that it is a text written by human hands, but they worship it. It's that important, I wanted to dive in these dimensions, it's one of the holiest books, and it's incredible.

So first I wrote the text, I started reading, searching, listening to lectures, and I found very critical things about the text, actually. So, the very first day I came here to start rehearsing, I talked about the main perspectives, about seeing things. Because most of the time we see things as we are, not for what they are. Then I told them other stories from the Bhagavad Gita. One of the worst names of the nazi regime, one of the evilest figures, Heinrich Himmler, who organized the concentration camps and who was the leader of Auschwitz, he carried all his life in his pocket a special edition of Bhagavad Gita. And you know - this is where I want to get with this, that from his perspective, it can be read: "Do your duty!" For millions of people it's a spiritual text, but it is so easy to see things from this terrible perspective as well.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: In all the Holy books human kind ever produced, you have very profound philosophical and poetical writings, that function all in similar ways, no matter what religion they give foundations to. They offer you concepts, key phrases to think of, but they leave you the choice to understand or not, to do or not to do what is written...

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: I am coming from a Muslim country, and without being religious, you can see from my work that I am so much rooted in the philosophy of Islam and Sufism. It's because I come from this geography. For me, it is the most divine knowledge of humanity. But for others it is different. As I told you about "Ana'l-Haqq", (I am the God): under this law, people killed in the most brutal way. This is how they understood it, that if they had God in them, they were the new Gods. In that sense, I just took the story line, because I wanted to argue about the ethics of this choice, so this was the very first motivation for choosing Bhagavad Gita, not knowing if Arjuna was right or not to go to war. I did not want to show the ending... but after I got the feedback from Mr. Mihai Măniuțiu - because he's my master, you know, I do not question it a lot if it comes from him - and also from Anca Măniuțiu, I took it as a new encouragement, as a new perspective of seeing things, and I changed the ending.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: So, in the performance, you show this path, how Arjuna gets to understand what choices he has, what he is supposed to do, through a dialogue between him and the God Krishna. You integrated here in the scenography, the presence of 5 bicycles, in a line, with dynamos, energy producing bikes, and the pedalling sound gives us the feeling of an army preparing to go to war. Is this the feeling you wanted the spectators to experience, what is the reason behind the presence of these black bikes?

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: Yes, you know my universe, I like bringing obstacles, performative elements which keep the performers present in the moment, so that they do not have space to go in their own universes, problems or issues. A constant physical obstacle, different from The Quest, because there, they were solo, they had obstacles during their solo parts, but here it is the other way round, during the whole performance they have this physical constraint: pedalling. And I did not know what kind of bikes we would have, how it was going to work, technically, but my dream was to produce real electricity, and play with the intensity of the light, depending on the speed of pedalling. For us, in these circumstances, it did not really work like this, because the intensity did not change the way I wanted it to, when the pedalling was very fast or slower, it was mainly the sound that changed. So, this brough another challenge which I turned into an advantage in my understanding. I kept the sound continuously, but in a slow manner at some points, not to hear them too much, and intense at some other points, and I worked on the design of the lights according to the pedalling. Sometimes I have all the five being used, sometimes just two, or one, or three. But yes, they are the army, as individuals, as Arjuna, but also his army, swinging on their horses, waiting for the moment they would attack. It's in between. And this position is not comfortable, but quite painful: they have to move, they have to change, to put on the helmet, and there are so many other things that are not visible, I hope: they play with the gloves and the sunglasses, it's a hidden choreography. And then the text comes into play.. You know, my language is not easy to learn. In English there are five pages, in the translation there are seven, but there was a struggle to learn it and deliver it in the best manner, as a chorus and as individuals. So, this is the concept, concerning the bikes.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: They give a special feeling, because they bring this ancient text in our contemporary world in an unusual way, with these warriors forming a line on their bikes.

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: It is an alignment effect. For the performers and for the audience, there is always another reference, another image, another sound from the spoken words.

 Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: And the sound of the pedalling is very strong, announcing that something bad is coming, the preparation for this war, and then one by one, they get off the bikes and come in front, becoming Krishna. But their getting on and off the bikes, brings us this idea of Arjuna being there, present in each of them, he's the leader and he has to convince them, but he and they are hesitating. Arjuna is in each of them with his wisdom but also with his doubts.

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: There is a hidden message: first the storyteller comes, he leaves the costume and then the other comes, presents Krishna and leaves the costume for the next performer. All this is saying that it is so easy to be the God, the wise man, it's just the costume, the outfit, the animal skin you put on, it is just about decision. But this is one thing. On the other side, I call myself a game-maker and they are the game-players. I just develop the concept of a game: these are the rules, these are the characters which have to be restored, kept, told, and you have the obstacles, the bicycles, and this is the game. Whenever the costume is free, somebody has to come in front and continue the game. So, I told them just to play the game truthfully.

Ștefana Pop-Curșeu: A game with a mystery at the end, because we do not know what is going to happen to Arjuna... Is he for you more than a character from the Mahabharata?

Ҫağlar Yiğitoğullari: From another hidden level, this is the subtext: Arjuna is the artist. During this process of becoming wiser with the information received from Krishna, Arjuna is getting a better artist. He's an artist who wants to know more and, in my universe, artists are leaders of the society, this is the why it should function, I believe. And Krishna tells Arjuna that as a leader, he should learn from the Artists, who spend their entire lives learning how to pronounce words in the best manner, with care, with a lot of intention. It is not easy. You see, declaring war is not just going into a Parliament or talking to your colleagues and deciding in 5 minutes for the whole society. It needs time and intention, just like how we do it. All our lifelong we try to create our images, words in the best manner so as to be understood, to clarify what we want to say. So, the hidden part is about the artist...

You can read here the rest of the interview in English: https://dramatica.ro/index.php/j/article/view/308