A play of sides

A new production directed by Atul Kumar explores politics, arts and the grey area of morality that lies in between

It's the end of World War II, and Wilhelm Furtwängler, a German music conductor, considered one of the greatest in the world, has been rounded up by the Allied Forces. He’s interrogated — why didn’t he flee Germany like other artistes when the Nazis were gaining power? Why did he stay, create music, play at state functions, and accept official positions? Was he a Nazi pawn, or did he really love his country and art — enough to stay put under a murderous regime and continue creating music? These are questions, oddly still pertinent, that an upcoming play titled Taking Sides will dwell upon.

Atul Kumar in Taking Sides

Theatre-maker Atul Kumar, who has directed the play written by Ronald Harwood, recalls that he first came across this play 15 years ago. “I had watched the film based on it, directed by Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó, and it had hit home. Recently, I read the script during the lockdown,” he adds. While Kumar essays the role of the conductor, actor Sukant Goel is the American officer who interrogates him at the court.  “Furtwängler’s argument [for not fleeing the country] was that he loved his people and his homeland. He felt music was above politics and that he should continue to make music and give his people comfort during that time,” explains Kumar. The American officer, on the other hand, comes from a place of “truthful morality, where there’s only good and bad, not art and politics”. 

In interrogating Furtwängler, the Allied Forces tried to implicate him for being a Nazi party member. “But Furtwängler speaks about the spiritual realms of art, why it’s important for art to continue even in difficult times of war,” the director elucidates. He adds that our present situation is not too different, with “our stand-up comedians, writers and thinkers being put in jail for raising their voices against the regime”. By the end of the play, he hopes, the audience, too, will be torn between the two sides. “It’s nice to keep creating forums where we confuse each other — it’s good to consider both sides,” he signs off.

On February 10 and 11, 8 pm; February 12 and 13, 3 pm and 8 pm at Lé Chakallas Studios, 125, Bungalow Road, Aram Nagar, Versova, Andheri West. 
Cost Rs 499

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