Maati Katha by Tram Arts

In the dangerous and magical land of Sunderban – the vast forested delta area in West Bengal (eastern India)  and Bangladesh where great rivers combine and split before merging into the Bay of Bengal, a region of  extreme ecological and environmental vulnerability – living is about a fragile balance between land and water,  forest and field, domestic and wild, human and human, human and non-human, calm and storm. As each  stakes claim, as each encroaches upon the other’s space, how does life manage?

Stories and beliefs form essential anchors for the people of the Sunderban, with the ‘Bonbibi’ legend looming  large in the popular imagination. Bonbibi is said to have come to the ‘Land of the 18 Tides’ to help the people,  the tigers, the deer, the crabs, the trees… all beings that cohabit the land. But, only if we agree to her terms.  And when she looks away, devastation follows! Episodes from this legend as well as everyday aspects of  Sunderban life are depicted by the traditional and contemporary doll-makers of Sunderban. Maati Katha (Earth  Stories) brings these dolls – originally used for worship, child’s play and display – into the theatre for the first  time, combining these art and craft traditions with contemporary object and material theatre practices. The  play brings alive the Sunderban through these clay dolls and the shape-shifting ‘maati’ (soil, earth, clay, land,  mud) that not only forms the dolls, but also defines the land and grounds the philosophy of the region. In  doing so, Maati Katha invites us to celebrate human resilience in the midst of fragility – a resilience that  enables diverse communities to hold together through repeated upheavals of natural calamity and human  violence. Bonbibi’s philosophy reigns, ‘You are all connected: the crocodile, the tiger, water, forest, land, all  human beings … All!’