Dr Shivakumar Magada
brought Vincent Willem Van Gogh to Mangalore
Van Gogh: A tale of love, Pain and Paint
A
tragedy staged on 14.12.2018 at College of Fisheries, Mangaluru
Mangalore is famous for dances, music, art and theatre. Normally Mangalore theatre is dominated by social and comedy plays. Few professional troops occasionally perform absurd and experimental dramas. But a college team known as SCUBA-Students Cultural Union for Bringing Alchemy from College of Fisheries, Mangaluru enacted a play “Van Gogh: a tale of love, pain and paint” written and directed by Dr Shivakumar Magada, Professor at the same college. It is completely based on the autobiography of Van Gogh. Dr Magada wrote this play in 1992 when he was a final year degree student. With manuscript only it was staged in 1995 for Kannada Rajyothsava. In 1996 it was presented at youth festival at Bangalore created big news because of its subject, raw scenes and dialogues. Later, Magada moved to Mandya, Bangalore and working for University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore as Scientist. There again he directed the same with students of college of agriculture. In 2004, he came back to Mangalore to do his PhD on deputation.
It was staged in Town Hall, Mangalore in 2004
On one fine day Dr Magada was travelling in Mangalore in
city bus during 2004. When the bus was passing by town hall, he saw a banner
where it was written “Sanketa” Professional theatre group of Mangalore
presenting a play on Van Gogh which is scheduled next day. He was surprised to
see his name on it. Out of curiosity, he went to town hall and saw the drama
quietly. After the show he went on the stage and asked who the Shivakumar
Magada there is? They said that they don’t know. He identified himself and they
were shocked because they that the author of the play must be a matured grey
haired man. But Magada was young looking like 23 old though he was 34. He was
honoured by the artistes. The same team went to Mumbai and enacted the same and
the lead and the director Mr Jagan Pawar won best actor and choice of critics’
award.
About Vincent
Willem Van Gogh
Vincent Willem
Van Gogh (30 March
1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post Impressionist who is among the most
famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a
decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years
of his life.
They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold
colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the
foundations of modern art. However, he was not commercially
successful and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.
Born into an
upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and
thoughtful. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but
became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and
spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern
Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in
1881, having moved back home with his parents. His younger brother Theo supported him financially, and
the two kept up a long
correspondence by letter. His early
works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, contain few
signs of the vivid colour that distinguished his later work. In 1886, he moved
to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against
the Impressionist sensibility. As his work
developed he created a new approach to still lifes and local landscapes. His paintings grew brighter in
colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay
in Arles in the south of France in
1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include series
of olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers.
Van Gogh suffered from
psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental
stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and
drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a
razor, when in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear. He spent time in
psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and
moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near
Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression continued and on 27
July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his
injuries two days later.
Van Gogh was
unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He
became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the
quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist "where discourses on
madness and creativity converge". His reputation began to grow in the
early 20th century as elements of his painting style came to be incorporated by
the Fauves and German
Expressionists. He attained
widespread critical, commercial and popular success over the ensuing decades,
and is remembered as an important but tragic painter, whose troubled
personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.
Van Gogh visiting
Mangalore after a gap of 15 years.
Dr Magada decided to play this drama of his won and
expressed in front of art enthusiasts. They agreed and within 72 hours,
students picked up the highly unusual literary and lengthy dialogues which are
beyond their age and analysis. Just support them and boost their confidence, he
decided to play a small role. He also convinced Dr S M Shivaprakash his
professor to act in it. Overnight stage properties were prepared. Mr Ismail, a
great technician and Mr Sukesh were contacted for light and music. They brought
the European flavour on the stage. It was portrayed excellently in front of
class audience who were drop dead silent for 60 minutes.
The
costumes were almost matching to the original characters and real characters
were displayed on a big screen which added the value of the tragedy.
Except me with a character Vincent
William- Van Gogh’s brother Theo Van Gogh’s son, Mr Srinivas H Hulkoti (Van
Gogh), Yashwini (Sien Hoornik), Shivani (Johana Willem) all were debutants for
theatre, but they did not allow the audience to feel so. Ms Bhavanjali as
Ursula Loyen, Praveen Joshi as David (Mine Worker) Amogh as Eugene Henry Paul
Gauguin and Sushmitha as Janet played to their best.
Dr Magada
said it will be staged again during the golden jubilee celebration of the
college during October 2019.
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