Sumant Jayakrishnan is a scenographer, designer, installation artist and theater practitioner based in New Delhi. Trained in visual communication at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, he also studied theatre design and scenic techniques at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London on a Charles Wallace Award. He received a Fulbright Arts Fellowship as a visiting scholar to New York University in 2002. His work spans the entire spectrum of design today, from contemporary theater and dance to exhibition, fashion, art direction for film and international events.

1) At what point in the development process did you meet and begin to work with director Tim Supple?

I was introduced to Tim Supple in New Delhi, January 2005 by Alice Ciccolini, who was then The Head of Arts at the British Council, New Delhi, when he was doing a preliminary trip to India and Sri Lanka to meet possible collaborators for the project - actors, designers, and production crew.

We subsequently firmed up the collaboration in May 2005 when he was doing preliminary auditions for actors in Mumbai. I then attended a week of the final auditions in Mumbai in July 2005 which gave me an opportunity to see him at work with performers.

I then went over to London in November 2005 where I spent two weeks with Tim discussing possible approaches to stage and costume design for the production. I sketched many options for both through our meetings; by the end of the two weeks we had a plan in place as to how to start our rehearsal process in Pondicherry in January 2006.

In the interim period we were in touch over email where I sent him a series of plans and sketches based on our discussions. This interaction and his responses lead me to develop a model and 3D images for the production as also some sample costumes which I had stitched together for when the rehearsals started.

Of the seven week rehearsal period I was there in Pondicherry for about four weeks – usually every alternate week and leading up to the final two weeks. In between I would leave, prepare new costume and prop options in New Delhi and then come back to test them through with the actors. An important phase in our fourth week was the construction of an actual back grid and bridge using local techniques and skills in Pondicherry. This was very important for the actors and Tim as they had something very tangible to deal with and improvise on, in actual scale.

We then broke for about a month and met again for a final two weeks of rehearsal In New Delhi at our opening venue – the IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts). It was an open space where we built everything from scratch – Amphitheatre, Stage, Grid, Lighting grid, Greenrooms, Toilets etc. I also built in a couple of extra covered spaces which became workshop spaces where carpenters, tailors, cane specialists and welders were set up to work on details for the Stage, props and Costumes. As we rehearsed and final adjustments were to be made they happened on the spot – a wonderful and very organic process where Tim and the actors were very intrinsically involved as also the backstage crew. We then opened the production on the first of April 2006.

2) Why do your think A Midsummer Night’s Dream—particularly this multi-lingual, cross cultural interpretation—has such universal appeal?

This production of the Dream has always been performed without subtitles (except once in Verona) despite the seven languages. It is very physical, emotive in appeal and grabs your attention with the many different worlds it inhabits. There is enough English for you to get a sense of the story in progress and the energy of the performances fill in the gaps of understanding at a very basic and comprehensive level.

The uniqueness lies in the combination of the different worlds the production inhabits – the excessive decorative world of the Court which is a combination of something elizabethan, contemporary indian chic and 1960’s flower power; the worlds of the Mechanicals (the workers) off the streets anywhere in the world; and the world of the fairies – very raw, primal and earthy without falling into earlier clichés of the faerie world of medieval England.

There is a humour and understanding between all these worlds and their interactions together which is representative of the way the world is evolving today in the 21st century and therein lies its beauty and universal appeal. Two years down the road I am still enthralled watching performances of “The Dream”.

3) Many of the reviews we’ve read highlight the sets, lighting and costumes as the most stunning feature of this play—that the dressed stage itself provides the direction and guidance for the actors. From the footage we’ve seen, the feel of your Dream seems to be a re-imagined world, set in no particular time or place, with a visceral, primal sensibility. What inspired the overall look and feel?

The Evolution of the Look and feel of the play is as I have mentioned above completely a response to the collaboration between Tim, the actors and my team and its contribution.

The initial discussions with Tim were very specific with reference to each scene. Each was given a detailed description by us in terms of its feel, a mood, references to possible links and parallels in indian and south east asian mythologies which the actors or I brought up; or references to european, greek mythologies or stories from Ovid that Tim brought up.

Visual references, symbols and metaphors that we put together in discussion just became part of the imagined world; where it was hard to define where the source came from eventually – so well was it all meshed together.

4) How did your design evolve, particularly the use of ropes, slings, and paper walls?

The main space that Tim and I agreed on early as the sacred space was one of the mandala which is always a square with four gateways or entrances, one on each face. The front face is where puck sits often with the singing stone which stimulates or symbolises transformations within worlds and magic. In the open air production we had side mandala entrances as well which then adapted differently into the design for the proscenium as just entry points. The back face was always the grid wall through which performers entered and disappeared seamlessly through the performance.

The paper came in early as a concept where it appeared as a solid skin for the first court scene which then slowly tore apart to reveal the inner world of the primeval shredded forest. It eventually disappeared completely to reveal the skeleton of our world of the forest and then got draped by silks for the court and wedding scene at the end.

The use of ropes and silks was something Tim was inspired by in performances he had seen in the south of India. We worked on many permutations and combinations which then crystallized into its final form based on the actual improvisations by the actors during rehearsal. What was magical to watch in the improvisations was the simple vocabularies with the ropes and silks picked up and transformed meaningfully into stories by the actors. Initially there had just been a series of sketches and images without the links that came in later.

For example the lovers getting caught up in a mesh had just been a sketch off the grid using either rope or elastic. What Puck and the lovers did in improvisations with that one image and elastic was extremely satisfying and surprising, and beyond what I had imagined.

5) Were there challenges to adapt the set from one designed originally for open-air venues to then tour in traditional theatres?

There were many challenges in the translation of the set from the open air to the thrust stage in the RSC Swan theatre to “In the round” at the Roundhouse in London to the Proscenium version for the current tour. The most difficult decision always was the positioning of the musicians – in the front with their back to the audience in the open air productions, on the first floor on either side of stage facing the audience for the RSC Swan theatre and the Roundhouse; and stage left and right facing the stage (on stage) for the proscenium production. The sense of the mandala square and the grid at the back stayed pretty much intact through all the versions.

6) What are you working on now?

As a scenographer for different worlds in India, I am currently working on a couple of International music festivals in India (Goa) and the UK (Big Chill). I am also working on a big international Public Art festival in the whole city of Delhi later in the year. Along the way I continue work on the world of the Events - Swarovski – “Trend Forum” as also “Runway Rocks” – a jewellery sculpture show, the launch of Vogue (magazine) in India. I am also working on the stage and lighting design for an international contemporary dance company in India.

I am through it all looking forward to getting my teeth into another production like “The Dream”. They don’t come by often enough!

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