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‘A Study of Fear’: A dark comedy with a light touch
Summary
In the play, ‘A Study of Fear’, writer-director Atif Ally Dagman uses humour to highlight the complex subject of ‘othering’ in society
Last week, Prithvi Theatre played host to a pertinent theatrical performance. Titled A Study of Fear, the play employed humour and subtle messaging to delve into the complex subject of “othering" in today’s society. Written and directed by Atif Ally Dagman, 26, the play opens with a character, Amit Srivastava, getting a phone call that his childhood friend, Amir, has died. It is through the former’s eyes that the audience navigates the story. Unaware of what a Muslim funeral is like, Amit lands up at the grieving household, dressed in a black suit and tie, and carrying flowers and incense sticks. Though Dagman employs humour to play up Amit’s awkwardness, such repeated sequences also drive home some uncomfortable truths. For one, the performance highlights the prejudices that society harbours, perhaps sometimes subconsciously so.
Vikram Phukan, theatre director and stage commentator, feels that A Study of Fear employs an interesting treatment. For one, the contemporary realities are presented from the lens of an insular man, who might have been complicit in this “othering" but unknowingly. “At the start of the performance, such a person, sitting in the audience, might think that they understand the perspective of the Muslim community. But the cast and crew keep driving home the fact that they actually don’t till the very end," he says. “You also get to know that the heart is missing from the deceased youth’s body. It is a metaphor for society’s attitude, for friends who have abandoned their childhood mate over time, and many more such instances of exclusion."
Dagman, who has earlier directed and acted in the solo Miah-Boy Diaries, feels that Amit’s journey in the play is the education that he wanted to offer to the audience. “I wanted to open up a perspective about what the Muslim community is about, what the customs and traditions are. It is not about religion," says the young theatre practitioner, who wrote the play last year. It was performed in December as part of Thespo@25—one of the major youth theatre festivals in India—, and won 7 awards there, including the ‘Sultan Padamsee Award for Outstanding Play’ and ‘Outstanding New Writing’.
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The script stems from a personal space for Dagman. In spite of having grown up in a relatively sheltered environment in Kolkata, he noticed slurs and discriminatory treatment faced by members of the community. “When I moved to Mumbai in 2022, two friends and I went house-hunting. The broker asked us our caste, and when he got to know that I am a Muslim, he told me, ‘aap ghar se niklo tho casual kapde pehenna, kurta pyjama mat pehanna (when you get out of the house, wear casual clothes, and not kurta pyjama)’. I found it quite hilarious," he says.
Dagman has brought a lightness of touch to the play. He was clear that the play should not be perceived as a ‘victim’s point of view’. To kick start the process of putting the performance together, he got numbers of 30 to 40 people—some that he had worked with earlier and others suggested by Thespo. He then sent specific scenes to them, inviting the people to come and read with him. “Certain reactions were common to most. People, who claimed to have had liberal upbringings, were not aware of many customs and observances in an average Muslim household. Also, it never struck them that something like this could be dealt with and understood with a sense of humour," he adds. The marriage of these two large thematic ideas to achieve a dark comedy was interesting to all those who read the play.
Over time, the cast and crew has grown to include 16 members. Together, they hope to offer a legitimate insight into how a community feels like living in today’s world. Dagman hopes that A Study of Fear, which has seen six shows in the past year, will be staged again in Mumbai before it travels to cities such as Pune, Kolkata and Delhi later.
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