Performance Praxis of Affective Sublation Through the Devised Language of Parody

The paper introduces the performance of "Rasik Sampādak" (The Playful Editor), which premiered at the Centre for Theatre & Film, University of Allahabad on 1 October, 2024. Moving beyond the aura and straitjacketing of Munshi Premchand's creative flourish, the paper delves into the performative element in the short story of "Rasik Sampādak", as it will try to provoke us to unravel the human condition of “rejection”. In the performance, a group of “rejected” actors, after their series of unsuccessful auditions, are determined to perform their best, as they zero in on the text of Munshi Premchand's "Rasik Sampādak". Being “rejected” becomes their identity with the text, and also the harsh reality of actors who go through this experience in our society. In the face of extreme vulnerability, these actors have nothing to lose but the burden of their rejection. To overcome their own “rejection”, they have chosen to express all kinds of rejection in the society. And the only way they have at their disposal is to perform the human condition of “rejection”. As the text offers a spectrum of emotive gestures, the identity of “rejected actors” subtends the connection to our topical situation — the situation of real-life actors, who are rejected and yet continue to live with the spirit of acting/performance and through their conviction of creating the condition of care for all. In doing so, the paper will attempt to unpack one of the four guiding principles of creating this performance, namely — affective sublation.