Kathmandu:

The International Theatre Institute Nepal (ITI) Chapter recently honoured two German ladies for their immense contribution to promoting theatre culture in Nepal. The two — Sabine Lehmann, director of Studio 7, and Ludmilla Hungerhuber, project manager, Keshar Mahal Garden of Dreams project — came here in the 80’s and have made Nepal their home and have done their share to change the way theatre is perceived here.

“It was really thoughtful of ITI to appreciate our contribution and I am floating. I am very happy about it. It took a while but it has happened as everything good takes a while,” expressed Lehmann.

Before coming to Nepal, Hungerhuber, trained in social pedagogies, was working with children who do not fall in the normal learning category. But she was not satisfied with what she was doing. She was looking for a change and got to work in Nepal under the Bhaktapur Development Project.

“I came to Nepal, but not for theatre. However, once I met Lehmann, I got involved in Studio 7 productions every spring,” she said. She had no theatre experience so to speak of before meeting Lehmann. However, at present she acts in every play and is a part of the whole production of Studio 7, looking after the sets and costume designing.

On the other hand, Lehmann fell in love with theatre at the age of 11 when she watched a Shakespeare play. She said that that night she even dreamt in verses, her whole dream was in “Shakespeare’s language”.

Following in her dream steps, she joined the prestigious Max Reinhardt School, Berlin and landed here, where she found theatre was happening at a mythological or ritual level. “It was silly to even think that people would pay a huge entrance fee. I looked for an economic base and became associated with Hotel Vajra. It was a burden to run the hotel and do theatre at the same time, but I knew I could do that. I was free to do what I wanted to and this love for freedom made me happy,” she said.

Putting in her own money, she has been producing one production after another. She recalled facing the problem of getting lady actors because her theatre is in a hotel, and people raised their eyebrows believing this to be something that was not quite on the right level of entertainment.

Hungerhuber, who manages the set designing and costumes said, “The set changes constantly during the play and the costumes have to go together. The fun part of it is that we plan out something and it always becomes different in the end. Our actors have been with us for long and have received training on physical, voice, movement and language of the theatre. And it is fun working with them.”

The kind of plays they are doing is magic realism, which is very avant-garde, something beyond the immediate understanding of the masses. “We try to speak to the Nepali intelligentsia, a brighter audience. Nevertheless theatre lovers of the middle class group are building up these days, and coming more and more, which is a good sign.”

She believes that putting forward drama in the modern style helps to show another possibility of drama, which is not ritualistic or superficial stuff. “Drama should be worldly, something far beyond just entertainment,” explains Lehmann.

“Nepal would surely have been a paradise if humans were not insane. Nepal is so rich in everything from the beauty of nature to culture to architecture... but we are ‘starving in the midst of plenty’. I come from an aggressive country that started two world wars, out of some insanity some six million people were killed. Why are humans like that? Why are we put in that situation? These are some of the questions that a good theatre always looks at,” she says explaining theatre’s role in society.

However, Lehman believes the audience should not be bombarded with such thoughts all the time. “Every drama must have a certain amount of humour so that the audience can sit back and understand things and laugh. Theatre should be larger than life to be able to make people understand. Theatre is all about understanding not just entertainment. It has to take a stand, make a point, look at life, make explanation and make people understand.”

About her passion, she added, “Theatre is my teacher, I would not have learnt what I have learnt if theatre had not guided me. It is important for actors to experience and back themselves up with knowledge. They should know from history, environment, human behaviour, and psychology to social life so that one can make a clear statement even when living in chaos. Theatre gives you that interpretation, a meaning. Theatre is a mirror to life.”