The Unnao rape case, the Mathura custodial rape case, and Delhi’s Nirbhaya case are a few landmark cases India’s judicial system has witnessed. People remember the case, the heinous details, and whether justice was s…

The Unnao rape case, the Mathura custodial rape case, and Delhi’s Nirbhaya case are a few landmark cases India’s judicial system has witnessed. People remember the case, the heinous details, and whether justice was served. But the identity of the person who faced those crimes eventually disappears.In between navigating through systemic injustice, social isolation, and the physical and mental aftermaths of sexual violence, five rural women of Madhya Pradesh reclaimed their voice and control over their story in an unexpected way. They are artists and proudly say: “A survivor of sexual violence is not my only identity.”These are the women of Freeda Theatre who got their justice on stage.How Freeda Theatre was born?The foundation of Freeda was laid out in 2018, when Anushi A and Angarika G, two researchers from Maraa, a Bengaluru-based media and art collective, started on a journey to document survivors of sexual violence during a “Dignity March” across 22 states in India. In a conversation with DH, Anushi described that her conversations off camera with women were more about the aftermath of sexual violence, not the act itself. Many survivors of sexual and caste-based violence questioned why the blame was on them and not the perpetrators.In one such instance, Mamta, a woman from Madhya Pradesh, was gang-raped a few years ago. After getting aware of the incident, her husband left her, and her two children were taken away. She was alone for almost eight years, navigating through court cases and building a life on her own. “After what happened to me, I expected my family to stand by my side, but they all left me,” she told DH. View this post on Instagram
From documenters to performersThis is one of the many terrifying stories Anushi and Angarika heard, and were left feeling unsettled. This is when their colleague Ekta Mittal, one of the co-founders of Maara, suggested they explore theatre to process their emotions. Under the guidance of a theatre practitioner, Anish Victor, they worked on a performance called Chu Kar Dekho. Anushi said the idea was to explore how their bodies felt hearing the stories and express the emotions from a documenter’s perspective. “It changed our notions of what theatre meant.” In 2021, they returned to Madhya Pradesh to share the performance with the women. After the show, they extended an invitation to start on a theatre making journey.Mamta was one of the eight women who volunteered to join a nine-month theatre-making process in Indore. The workshops required them to use drawings and body movements to explore their memories and experiences that were long buried or silenced. Three of them eventually dropped out due to certain difficulties. However, the remaining women, including Mamta, have been determined to tell their stories through the stage.“The process of making a play with people they trusted exposed them to tell their stories without fear and judgement. They were able to open up through different techniques like open conversations, expressive drawings and body movements,” Anushi and Ekta felt.’Nazar Ke Saamne’: Reclaiming voice and identityThe workshops resulted in creating a play, Nazar Ke Saamne, whose core reiterated women’s rights: Khoobsurati (beauty), azadi (freedom), and insaf (justice), Freeda members explained.This five-women intergenerational group from Madhya Pradesh has completed around 83 shows across India and looks forward to hitting a century soon.“Theatre stage helped us raise our voice, reclaim our individuality, and independence,” Mamta says. People blamed them, questioned their character, name-called them. But none of it mattered.“Even today many Indian women struggle and fear to even step out of their houses alone. We are the first women from our villages to come forward and take the centre stage to narrate our stories,” Varsha, another Freeda member, said. “I also understood myself and my body in a much deeper way as we started practising and performing theatre.”​Theatre has made us artists, the incident that happened with us is a part of our lives, it does not define our entire personality today, Varsha acknowledges. View this post on Instagram
A new stage for Konkani: How young theatre enthusiasts are keeping the tradition aliveFrom watching Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah to finding my own stageThe theatre group eventually has become a community of people who healed themselves and each other in ways their own families did not. All of them are from different backgrounds, age groups, and have different mindsets. But they trust each other, discuss ideas, and aim to narrate stories that matter based on their life experiences.“When costumes are on, we are transported to a different world. We connect with our audience and see how they react to different scenes,” Tanwar said. Freeda’s stage is for all women. When they sit together during “charcha” [discussions] after the play, many women share their personal experiences, discuss different parts of the play, and applaud them too. It has become a medium for women to step out of their homes for 1-2 hours just for themselves. The audience also gives strength. When Freeda members sometimes see tears in their eyes, they feel connected, seen, heard.

Source: Deccan Herald