working in Brechtian Episodes. 15 of them, each titled. The following
section is called Sarvavarman's Victory". We 'write' this during the
rehearsal, based on the points we want to reach in the story. The
quesiton of how we get to those points come from the actors who are
working on thier charachters behalf in the areas of backstory,
understanding thier given circumstances, and outlining and following
what it is they want in each scene and at each moment. ) The kids are
going to kill me because i'm going to go in this afternoon and change
the scene before this a bit more to highlight Sathavana's ability to
agree to such an evil scheme. As for Gunadhaya. well his journey only
truly begins after this. Both Vaishnavi and Devaki are actreses who I
first just assigned the role of 'this one's wife, that one's wife -
Vaishnavi, I wanted her to be the paragon of good behaviour, graceful
and charming, so that when she looses it with the King during the
water sports she really looses it - its worked, she's taken to the
charachter like a duck to water ... pun intended. But Devaki, who
didn't even exist (well kind of does in the KSS - I need to check if
she has a name in there and if she does, use it) she has taken on a
charachter of lady macbethian proportions, from her moment of empathy
with the king in the first scene where she explains to a new comer to
the court why the king doesn't know sanskrit, and in it says 'not
knowing sanskrit here is like a curse" to having a charachter who
wants to push her husband to points of greatness, and is now faced
with a moment where she has to confess her own deep secret in order to
ensure his victory) we did that scene today, and i .. :-) :-) :-)
) }}
Three days pass, Sarvavarman seems to have taken on the kings recent
charachteristic - that of inaccessibility, his brahmin colleagues
wonder why he won't talk to them, he's seen pacing up and down in his
chamber non stop and the only person who ever gets to talk to him is
Devaki (we like the name-so it got used) his wife, that to for two or
three minutes at a time max.
Things are bad. How did he get into this mess. Gunadhya Gunadhya
Gunadhya, always winning sanskrit debates. Always using his wisdom so
easily...
"Swaami?"
"Leave me alone, I'm trying to think".
"You've stopped thinking, now you're just worrying about your impending faliure"
"Does everyone think I'm going to fail?"
Devaki doesn't reply.
"Oh God... all my years of service in this court, from the time of
Deepakarni, are all going to go down the drain".
"The whole court is talking about the challenge you posed, but what I
don't understand is why did you do it."
"The King had just promised Gunadhaya anything he wanted, when he
suceeds he would be the most honored of Brahmins! I couldn't just sit
and watch, I had to do something! Gunadhaya, he always comes up with
the solutions, he makes wisdom look so easy, in his presence I feel
like all my efforts amount to nothing..."
"You need to stop worrying about this. I have the solution"
"Solution, what solution could you possibly have?"
Devaki hesitates before making a confession that could end her life as
she knows it.
"Sarvavarman, when I first saw you, I didn't know any Sanskrit, but I
fell in love with you, and wanted to be your wife. So in the six
months I had before officially meeting you. I went to a pandit and he
got me to learn-by-heart a number of sanskrit answers. So that I would
always have a standard answer for you when you asked me anything."
"Learn by heart? "
"Yes, I mugged up Sanskrit Sholkas to impress you"
"The wife of Sarvavarman, one of the foremost authorities on Sanskrit
Grammar in this country! His wife learned by heart?"
"Please! before you say anything or do anything Rash.. listen! That is
how it started, when we first got married, and I didn't know the
correct response.. I would just stay quiet, you used to think I was so
shy. But after staying in your learned presence for a few years, I got
better, and now, today, I speak it fluently and you are happy."
Sarvavarman is speechless.
"What I did with you works! The king can do this with the court as well!"
"How will we get the King to agree?"
"He just wants to impress the queen... he'll do anything to do it as
quickly as possible."
"What about the Queen?"
"You leave that to me."
Convincing Satavahana was easy. And in a few days, the King was busy
mugging up appropriate Sanskrit Shloka's for various occassions. In
the mean while, Sarvavarman and his cotire of Bhramins arranged to
feed the king predetermined questions at the time of the examination.
Vaishnavi, excited to find out about the process asks Devaki, her
trusted friend and confidante about the progress her husband is having
with Satavahana.
"Its good, the king is a very fast learner! It will be wonderful for
you to have discussions with him in sanskrit wouldn't it? "
"I don't even dare to dream it lest it may not come true!"
"What would the first thing you would like to hear from your King in Sanskrit?"
"To hear him express his love for me in Sanskrit would be the most
wonderful thing. I would ask him to discuss Love."
Immediately Sathavana is schooled in a number of Shloka's about love.
6 Months pass, and the time of the exam is at hand. The whole court
has gathered, and the King - ready to perform is asked questions. All
of which the Bhramins are reading of prearranged question papers (one
would think they could have mugged that at the very least).
Gunadhaya sensing something is amiss stands to ask a question. He is
immediately put down by the Sarvavarman's coitere.
" This was not the predetermined structure that had been agreed upon
for the kings exam. Plus you are not a disinterested party. You nor
Sarvavarman may not ask questions!"
The king doesn't object.
Gunadhaya insists, "well if I can't ask a question, at least allow the
Queen, it is in her interests that this entire exercise was started!"
All is tense, what will the queen ask?
She asks him to comment on an aspect of Love.
Sarvavarman wins! For Gunadhaya, all is lost!
From that moment, he stops speaking the three languages of the court.
...next Gunadhaya leaves a court where his silence renders him invisible....
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