Teenage angst,fodder for drama,poetry and irreverent literature. When the members of the city-based theatre group Tin Can decided to address this issue (in their play Video),they knew that they had a major task at hand. We had to push the envelope. Change the idiom of English drama in the city, says Soumyak Kanti De Biswas of Tin Can. After all they were stepping into a mothball-preserved arena,where experimentation was a bad word. They were treading uncharted territory. When we say we wanted to change the idiom of the English theater in Kolkata,it doesnt just mean that we wanted to reinvent the story-telling style. We wanted to bring a blend of creativity and professionalism which would permeate into each and every aspect of theatre production, says Tanaji Dasgupta of Tin Can. And the first step towards that was to create awareness. We needed to be noticed. Grab attention, says Biswas. So up went the posters of the play all around the city. At cafes,restaurants and clubs,the blazing red poster with a blob of scribble in the middle,drew many a curious stare. We spent along time conceptualising the poster. We wanted to capture the spirit of the play, claims Dasgupta. The blob was meant to depict the confused state of a teenage mind and if the response that Dasgupta and Biswas got is anything to go by,they it did so successfully. The posters did create a lot of curiosity. I feel it spoke the language of the play, says Dasgupta. Other Tin Can productions too speak a similar language. A language of passion and irreverence that is aptly reflected in their posters. Onko,their play about numbers had an arresting visual of a hanging lamp with the a number plate attached to it,while the reworked version of their first play Intro,shows a cityscape with the credits of the play emblazoned across the buildings. Designing posters is a part of the creative process of staging a play, insists Biswas. Much like Tin Can,the other city-based theatre group Playhouse,which comprises school and college students,believes in unbridled creativity. The posters of their first play,Boomerang,adequately prove that a clever depiction of the evolution of man,that cunningly underlines his fall. Designing a poster is not an easy task. We try and involve everyone in the process. We brainstorm,ideate and then decide on one particular theme, says Safdar Rehman. Similarly,the posters of the recently staged Byomkesh Bakshi-inspired play,Checkmate,scores brownie points for innovation sepia-toned picture of a city road from the early 20th century,depicting the spirit of the times that the play is set in. When you tell them that their posters are a refreshing change from the staid,unimaginative handbills that would pass off as posters in the pre-Tin Can era,the pioneers point out that it was a change waiting to happen. Our posters stand out because they are youthful and make an attempt to convey stories. If you check out the posters of major productions outside the city,you will see that they are equally imaginative, says Biswas. Eighteen-years-old Aditi Roy,who has designed the posters and brochures of the forthcoming play Exit,reiteratesMany of us are fresh from school. We have loads of ideas in our mind. Some of them make sense,some dont. I guess that makes our work interesting. The posters of Exit,which will be staged next month,are definitely interesting. A scrawny teen,writes on a blackboard the details of the play,while a curled-up,ancient figure (probably a teacher) pokes him with a pen. This is a play about asking the questions nobody asks. And then discovering exactly why nobody asks them.Its about a bunch of kids who dont just want to drift away from their childhood. I hope the posters manage to convey that very fact, says Rehman. Even if they dont,they surely have managed to do something that every good poster is meant to,make us sit up and notice.
