Echo of the Day is an illuminating theatrical solo performance by artiste Srilatha Kadavil. It was recently played at National Theatre Fest 2011 of Kerala in Kozhikode on the eve of April 1, 2011 at Tagore Hall premises.
The brilliant eco-feminist production is a joint venture by Dafodil (Drama for Different Intelligence) and Nireeksha of Thiruvananthapuram. It was the second production of the play in Kozhikode. Srilatha has collaborated with Rajarajeswari and other women theatre activists in the present production.
The performance created a brave new world of woman’s creativity and bio power. The body language and choreography presented a whole new idiom of feminist performance strategies and visual cultural and eco politics. Srilatha has tried to intelligently interpret her woman friend and painter Sajitha Sankar’s paintings in the solo.
The soulful and involved solo merged itself with the trees and surrounding landscape. It provided parallels between female body politics and the politics of the environment. The organic link between a woman’s material bodily existance and the ecological is stressed and rendered visible in a visually and aesthetically nuanced way by the solo.
There are male critics who complain that they could hardly understand the meaning of the play. It is interesting to note that most of them are writers and theatre persons themselves. Such criticism is sexist obviously. But attempts must be done by radical theatre groups to be more inclusive and democratic in their refashioning of theatre and the world. The staging of the solo in other cities of Kerala would do the desired change.
