A young director is born

She is young, she is dynamic and she is very very serious about her work. She is Rabijita Gogoi making waves as a director in the national theatre arena. Nava Thakuria introduces this new talent.

It was Guwahati Guwahati which introduced the young girl from Diphu into the theatre arena of Guwahati. The popular play, directed by Baharul Islam, also inspired and encouraged the girl to take up the theatre as a career. Soon she decided to study further about the world of stage. After making ripples in the theatre circle of Guwahati as a performer few years back, the girl has now emerged as a talented director and has got herself ready to take the national theatre arena by storm. After completing her academic education and rigorous training in the National School of Drama, New Delhi, with specialisation in Design and Direction, Rabijita Gogoi has proved herself as a brilliant debutante theatre director and has made her presence felt in the experimental field of theatre activities in the capital.

Born at Diphu in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam, Rabijita received her graduation degree in Political Science from Gauhati University in 1994. In the meantime, she had also completed a diploma course in acting from the Assam Acting Institute, Guwahati. Later she joined NSD, New Delhi and completed a postgraduate diploma course from the prestigious institution in 1997.

Her first important directorial debut was Mahesh Elkunchwar’s popular play Holi, which was staged at her home town Diphu in 1993. She received considerable acclaim with her own productions Atmaj and Yatrai in Guwahati. But it was her diploma production Dhruvswamini staged in New Delhi with the NSD repertory artistes in 1998 which attracted the theatre lovers most. Enjoying her production, NSD director Ram Gopal Bajaj, invited her to reproduce the play with the NSD repertory company. Her innovative approach in the treatment of the historic play written by the famous Hindi playwright Jaishankar Prasad caught the serious attention of the theatre circle in the capital, not to mention the rave reviews in the national media.

"Dhruvswamini is a play on women’s issues. The play questions the authority of male domination in the society; where women have been kept confined within the traditional bond, convention and values," so says Rabijita Gogoi in New Delhi after the production. Through his play Jaishankar ( who had died long back in 1937) raised many questions regarding women’s position in the society. Rabijita has authentically explored the essence of the play in its relevance to a contemporary world. She herself strongly believes that the status of women in our present and modern society must be changed. Passionately arguing for the right of women, Rabijita explains, "Today women are not lagging behind men in any field, but women are still deprived of their dues today." "Theatre is a strong, and I believe, the best medium to educate the people. Hence, I have selected the theme of Dhruvswamini," she adds. Her other directorial ventures include Dario Fo’s play Media(99), Herold Pinter’s play The dumb waiter(99) and Nisli (2000) which is based on a Sema naga folk story and was staged under a collaboration programme by NSD with the North East Zone Cultural Centre in Dimapur, Nagaland.

After Guwahati Guwahati, Rabijita also worked with the Assamese adaptation of Antigone and once again received acclaim from the theatre lovers of Guwahati. But she had still to know more about the academic and technical aspect of theatre and so finally decided to join NSD.

Completing her academic course, Rabijita kept herself busy working with some eminent theatre directors in the capital. At the same time, she endeavored for the Assamese adaptation of some significant plays like Kanchanjungha, Gatirodhak, Mrigaya and Holi.

During her stay in New Delhi, Rabijita worked in a number of acclaimed productions as a designer, which includes Kissa Hakim Sahib Ka by Rajendra Nath, Khul Ja Sim Sim by B.V.Karanth, The Death of a Salesman by Amit Anand, Womb of Fire by Ratnawali Kant etc. She also worked with some with some outstanding theatre personalities like Ram Gopal Bajaj, B M Shah, Anuradha Kapoor, Robin Das, Bhaskar Chandravarkar, Dayal Nihalini etc.

She has also translated a number of plays to Assamese. They are The Readers to the Sea by J.S.Synge (Ireland), The Dumb Waiter by Herlod Pinter (America), Dhup Ka Ak Tukra by Nirmal Varma (Hindi) etc.

For this young and energetic director, theatre was a phenomenon which began right from her school days. During her college days in Guwahati she used to participate in theatre activities. She led her college team in the university youth festival to win the best drama award. Regarding her weakness towards direction, Rabijita has a prompt response, "I suppose the role of a director is more exciting and also very responsible. The director has to be associated with all backstage and on-stage activities of a production. And it is the duty of the director to help the artistes to establish the characters they are playing." She also adds, "The director has the liberty to make an analysis and adopt the final decision for a production. So the director, quite naturally, has to play the role of a responsible member in a society."

Rabijita had recently visited Japan for the production of Miwa, which was directed by S. Morijori and was a joint collaboration of the Indian and the Japanese government. Rabijita is also working for the Hindi adaptation of Miwa which will be staged at end of the year.

Earlier she accompanied R.G.Kothari from NSD, New Delhi, for her production Abhigyanam Shakuntalamto Sri Lanka in 1994.

Rabijita is presently busy preparing for an Assamese adaptation of a French play La Musica , which will be staged in Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir, Guwahati on the 29th and the 30th June. The adaptation titled Nisaar Raagini, which will be directed by Rabijita herself will cast some serious theatre workers of Assam like Pakija Begam, Anup Hazarika, Jonki Borthakur etc.