Why Not Disrupt Theatre?

Toronto-based stage director Ravi Jain is a multi-award-winning artist known for making politically bold and accessible theatrical experiences in both small indie productions and large theatres. As the founding artistic director of Why Not Theatre, Ravi has established himself as an artistic leader for his inventive productions, international producing/collaborations and innovative producing models which are aimed to better support emerging artists to make money from their art.

Ravi was twice shortlisted for the 2016 and 2019 Siminovitch Prize and won the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Director and the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction. He is a graduate of the two-year program at École Jacques Lecoq. He was selected to be on the roster of clowns for Cirque du Soliel. Recently Sea Sick, which he co-directed, showed at the National Theatre in London, his adaptation of The Indian epic Mahabharata premiered at the Shaw Festival and the Barbican in London, England in 2023, and What You Won’t Do For Love, starring David Suzuki premiered in Vancouver in 2021.

This interview took place in November of 2023 just after Ravi returned from staging Mahabharata at the Barbican. It was conducted by Brendon Allen, who is an artist-educator on the editorial board of Provocations.

Brendon: 

How do you think Theatre can uniquely engage in artful disruption?

Ravi: 

Theatre is a really broad term. There is a branch of the tree (a long and old branch) whose existence is just that. Theatre in countries like Kenya, Brazil, India, Chile... it was at the heart of political revolutions. It spoke truth to power, challenged history and cultural narratives and even ended up with people in prison, exile, or murdered. It was a threat to the state.  

So I suppose it depends what the "artful disruption" is. For me, theatre has always been a tool to be used to inspire people to imagine the possibility of existing in a different world. IF you feel the world needs a change for good, we have the power to imagine a new world, or new ways of doing, and IF the need is great enough, we will all believe in a vision and do what we can to make it happen. We'd all play our own role. 

I would say that if we lean on that history, it is an incredible tool to challenge narratives, history and find a creative way to inspire an alternative vision of existence.

Brendon: 

What is Theatre's role in disruption and change in a “post”- Covid world?

Ravi:

 I have been trying to steer away from disruption as a word or concept. It’s a buzz word that people have gravitated to. I feel it is part of this world of "thought leaders." 

For me, the theatre is about building something. We create an imaginative world that inspires people to believe in something - and that is an exciting and dangerous form of potential energy.  I do not think we are in a post covid world, but where theatre can be of use, or rather, theatre artists can be of use, is that we are keenly aware of the creative process. Like scientists we have a lot of experience bringing people together and finding a process to bring a vision to reality. In a time when a lot of "norms" are being challenged and status quo is being shaken to a degree - artists in general can play a big role in creative problem solving for major city building issues; big and small.  

For theatre specifically, we can remind people that we are human and benefit a lot from gathering in person and participating in a story. It is a reminder (one that we need to be diligent about as a society) that we are not solely individuals- we are individuals in relationship to others. We are part of many communities and those bonds are what can make the world a better place. The world of technology is absolutely making our lives better in many ways- but in so many ways that we are now aware of- it is not. In fact it is actively breaking down the fibers of those relational bonds within our communities. We are becoming less tolerant, more self-centered and self preservationist. In a way more isolated. Theatre is an event that brings people together, we all need to be in one place at the same time and we need to focus our attention together. There is a major power in that.

Brendon: 

With Why Not Theatre's mission (make things better through art) in mind, how much  societal change through art requires building and how much of it requires breaking?

Ravi:

In my experience everything is evolution. It morphs and changes naturally, with the influence of people who help to steward a change. The only time it needs to break is when humans hold on tight to it, when they resist the natural flow of evolution and change. 

Making things better through art for me is really about building creative processes. A process that is critical, open and finds a way to harness the energy and ideas of all those involved. 

At why not, we do this through artistic projects but we are also engaged in solving larger issues: access to space, producing models, access to world class training.  The building and breaking is part of the process in that one needs to observe habits and challenge our assumptions of them in order to make new choices that inevitably will yield a new result. Lately I've been trying to move away from the buzzword of "disruptor" and adopt a more positive approach, like intervener.

Brendon: 

Do you find your audiences have an appetite for disruptive creative works, or work that intervenes, in some way? Why or why not?

Ravi: 

Absolutely!  People want to be surprised. They want to be inspired. No one goes to the theatre hoping to fall asleep. That is a product of the predictability of most theatre as well as content, form. An audience wants to be engaged and taken somewhere unexpected. When we all do that in a room together, that act has the potential to change someone.

Brendon:

Has becoming a father shifted your perspective on art making?

Ravi: 

Yes. Becoming a father changed my sense of time. My ambition. It has given me another purpose. I think a lot more about their generation; what that world will be, what will be lost when they come of age, what will be new. What it has given me is time to be away from the grind and hustle of theatre making, which was a default way of life. I now have a better perspective to see things at a distance. 

Brendon: What should schools and drama programs be doing in the face of a future that seems unpredictable?

Ravi:

It should remind us that humans have always lived in times of crisis. 

We have always used stories to find our way through those times.  More and more, we are living in a time where we are constantly consuming culture. 

The monoculture of capitalism, the monoculture of buying, trending, influencing; a lot has to do with a culture of buying and selling, product, image, lifestyle, you name it. We forget that we create culture, we are creators of culture- it’s what separates us from our animal brethren/sistren. 

We choose the stories we want to tell, how to tell them and why they are necessary. And we can do this in many ways.  

Theatre is not a box you have to fit into. It is perceived as a thing that you have to be trained into, and yes, for one branch of it, that's true. But there are many more branches to the tree- and if that young person can harness their voice to find the right way to tell the right story, they may not remove the unpredictable part of the future, but they may inspire us to want to or to act to make it better.