hey i'm mike regnetta this is crash
course theater and today i'm going to
move my hands in very intricate and
meaningful ways as we discuss katakali
the indian dance drama that followed
sanskrit drama and is still being
performed today katakali performances
would last all night and climax at dawn
with the killing of a demon because
after eight hours you need a big finish
do you like colorful and frightening
stage makeup then you have come to the
right place ooh
nice
[Music]
by the 13th century sanskrit drama
wasn't performed much anymore but some
plays had been adapted for a form of
dance worship called kutiatam another
form that absorbed sanskrit drama is the
krishnatam a cycle of eight dance dramas
created around 1650 and dedicated to the
god krishna with one drama performed
every night for eight consecutive nights
as religious works kutiatam and
krishnatam were mostly performed in
temples in the state of kerala for any
gods who happened to be watching though
high caste people were also allowed to
attend that's a pretty small audience so
enter katakali as with most ancient and
early modern forms of drama everyone say
it with me
we don't know exactly when it began but
it was fully developed by the 17th
century historically katakalli was
performed in the outer courtyards of
temples so anyone could attend evening
performances winter to spring thousands
showed up for popular works like
kutyatam and krishnatam katakali whose
name literally means story play is a
fusion of music dance and acting plus
some awesome martial arts most katkali
like sanskrit drama borrows stories from
the great hindu epics the mahabharata
and the ramayana but some qakali plays
borrow from other sacred texts
especially the piranhas more recently
there have been catkali adaptations of
shakespeare and other western dramas too
there's a repertoire of 60 plays still
performed today most written in
malayalam the most widely spoken
language in kerala but there are
portions in sanskrit the plays typically
were and still are performed by men but
some contemporary troops include women
and honestly underneath all that makeup
and those fake demon breasts how can you
even tell the katakalli stage is a
square of ground in the temple courtyard
with a satin curtain at the front which
represents worldly illusions and a brass
lamp which welcomes divine presence at
dusk a drum invites the gods to take
their seats and then two to three hours
of preliminaries begin prayers warm-up
acts and drum solos before the
eight-hour performance there are no set
pieces except for a wooden stool and
there are no props except for weapons
the play usually ends at dawn with the
slaying of a demon or a demon king
followed by a dance thanking the gods
and asking for blessings on the audience
then the lamp is extinguished
contemporary audiences may not have the
stamina for an all-night dance theater
extravaganza that culminate in demon
killing so these days performances last
about three hours and usually include
scenes from three different plays in
contexcali there are three kinds of
performers actor dancers percussionists
and singers actors were once drawn from
the ranks of martial artists and would
pledge to their patrons that they would
perform until their dying
day
now things are a little less strict
still you have to apprentice for 20
years to be considered a fully trained
katakalli performer characters are
typically based on archetypes kings
heroines demons demonesses gods animals
priests though some seem drawn from life
actor dancers create their roles by
learning highly regimented choreography
and i was not kidding 500 distinct hand
gestures called mudras as nandik as far
as medieval treadis abhinay darpanam
says
for wherever the hand moves there the
glances flows where the glances go the
mind follows where the mind goes the
mood follows and where the mood goes
there is the flavor these gestures and a
huge range of facial expressions allow
them to tell the stories with just their
bodies and reflect the inner state or
bava of each character as we mentioned
in sanskrit drama there are nine bavas
the erotic the comic the pathetic the
angry the heroic the fearful the
repulsive the wondrous and peace
here is how to perform the erratic bava
open the upper lids as wide as possible
keep the lower lids slightly closed with
the lips make a soft relaxed smile but
do not show the teeth keep the gaze
focused straight ahead having assumed
this position begin to flutter the
eyebrows keeping the shoulders still
using the neck move the head first to
the right
and then to the left back and forth move
the head to a 45 degree angle to the
right continuing to flutter the eyebrows
repeat to the left meanwhile a
three-drum percussion orchestra is
keeping time while two onstage vocalists
clank brass symbols and sing the text
both the third person narration and the
first person dialogue because trying to
perform any bava and sing throughout an
entire all-night show would be
exhausting scripts for the katakali
dramas typically run 30 or 40 pages and
if you're thinking um
that sounds really short for an
all-night performance you're right
that's because the scripted words are
only one component and not even the most
important one the music and the singing
and the dancing matter just as much once
an actor has become an expert in a role
he's encouraged to add some passages of
dance and dialogue that he has created
this dialogue is always spoken and never
sung audiences expect
to see these improvisations and it's one
of the ways that they judge a
performance's success lots of stuff
makes katakali awesome but the stage
makeup is
really something to behold so hold on to
your blending sponges people we're gonna
go to the thumb there are seven types of
characters in katakali and every type
gets his or her or its own makeup which
takes two to four hours to apply green
or pacha is for gods and epic heroes
like arjuna they're upright moral and
full of calm inner poise ripe or faiupu
is an orange red shade that's used for
the gods balarama brahma shiva and surya
knife aka khatti refers to the sinister
mustache that evil king characters wear
their faces are green just like a heroes
but the red mustache lets us know that
this green person is up to no good beard
or tati is pretty self-explanatory white
beards are for divine types like the
monkey king hanuman black beards are for
evil schemers red beards are for evil
characters who aren't schemers black
stage makeup called kari is for
demonesses radiant or shining makeup
called manuku is used for heroines and
spiritually woke heroes special or tepu
is for the other characters in the
repertory about 18 of them who don't fit
any of the above types after actors are
made up and dressed they placed a
crushed seed called kuntapuvu under each
eyelid supposedly the seed doesn't hurt
it irritates the eye just enough that
the eyes turn red which is considered
more expressive evil beard characters
insert fangs black demon-s characters
strap on fake breasts elaborate
headdresses are affects and just before
going on stage actors apply long silver
nails to their left hand which helps
accentuate those hand gestures thanks
bubble while kantikali is a more secular
form than its predecessors and intended
for a larger audience it still draws
from both sacred and secular traditions
and its stories often show the gods
engaged in a form of divine play because
even gods need a break from all that god
stuff to enjoy some amateur dramatics
let's look at an example from a popular
kantakali drama one still performed
today with a story drawn from the
mahabharata ladies and gentlemen it's
kiratam arjuna one of the pandova
brothers and pretty much the greatest
archer the world has ever known
discovers that he's going to need an
incredible weapon to defeat his mean
kauruva cousins the pashupatastra should
do it's the most destructive weapon in
the universe kind of like an arrow with
a nuclear warhead on the tip in order to
convince the god shiva to give it to him
he goes to the himalayas and does a
bunch of penance in advance because
shiva likes austerity shiva is impressed
but he still wants to test arjuna so
shiva disguises himself as a hunter
named kirata in disguise he starts
giving arjuna a hard time about which of
them killed a wild boar and they fight
so here's some advice
don't go up against a god because shiva
wins easily but luckily arjuna has the
good sense to realize he's been subdued
by a god instead of getting mad he
humbles himself and goes back to penance
this self-discipline impresses shiva who
gives him the arrow arjuna thanks him
and praises his play acting in disguise
by saying by means of your play you
protect the whole universe which is a
pretty good review kieran isn't the most
dramatic of katakalli plays there's no
demon to kill at the end but it's a play
that shows how the form dances between
the secular and the sacred and honors
values dear to hinduism like bravery and
humility and it argues that playing
around with makeup and costumes and
fancy dialogue can also be a holy act
most theories of theater have the art
form beginning with song and dance and
while in the western theater the written
word has gained primacy in many asian
and southeast asian countries highly
communicative forms of music and dance
remain essential components of
performance so join us next time as we
look at beijing opera a form with even
more elaborate headdresses until then
worldly illusion i mean
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[Music]