Elements From the ‘Streetcart’: Exhibits at the Jai Vilas Palace Museum in Gwalior | Photo Credit: Sarah Singh Elements From the ‘Streetcart’: Exhibits at the Jai Vilas Palace Museum in Gwalior | Photo Credit: Sarah Singh

The sun has set. There is no orange tint in the sky; it’s dark. As the winding road takes one uphill to the majestic and magical Gwalior Fort, the rock-cut Jain monuments come to life. Downhill, the shimmering lights of Gwalior city resemble twinkling stars. The full moon—the eternal object of desire—shines brightly. The elements of the night—the uneasy/calming silence, a dog barking at a distance, the honking of a truck passing by, a lone night bird singing in the dark while returning home—add to the mystical settings. Your heart desires that time freezes so that you can stay in the silent moment just a little longer. Soon, orange and pink lights bring the ramparts of the Gwalior Fort to life. The audience settles. It’s showtime. The dreamy sequence begins. The fort turns into one of the props. The night turns into an element of desire...

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Sarah Singh, the creator of the forth edition of Panorama Editions, an international art salon   Photo Credit: Sarah Singh Sarah Singh, the creator of the forth edition of Panorama Editions, an international art salon   Photo Credit: Sarah Singh

The fourth volume of Panorama Editions, an international art salon created by Sarah Singh—a New Delhi-New York-based award-winning artist and filmmaker, whose multi-dimensional practice features moving images, text, photography, theatrical stagings, set and costume design, painting and drawing—was held in Gwalior on November 16. Like the first three editions—Patiala (2018), Jodhpur (2019) and Jaisalmer (2023)—that were organised at heritage sites/forts, this year, too, the Gwalior Fort—an architectural marvel that is an amalgamation of culture, history, tradition, grandeur, bravery, royalty and magnificence—was chosen as the venue.

The performance titled ‘A Streetcart Named Desire’—derived from Tennessee Williams’ play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’—featured 48 Indian and international artists who came together to form a collage of performances that explored the theme of different forms of desire—aspiration, longing, to let your presence be felt, for beauty, for passion, to be loved, to break free ... to name a view.

Each artist, through his/her act, depicted some form of desire and throughout the performance, they all shared the stage, even though the performance was divided into three separate acts. The desires (the artists) were sometimes visible, sometimes invisible; sometimes they were visible together and sometimes they were seen in isolation, all guided by a magnificent juxtaposition of light and sound. “The performance represented life. We all have our individual desires; some are universal and shared and existing at all times, and some are brief and fleeting; while some desires are unexpected,” says Singh.

“We all have our individual desires; some are universal and shared, some are brief and fleeting.”

She first visited Gwalior in 1993 as a solo tourist. A Lonely Planet guidebook led her to the Gwalior Fort where she saw the light and sound show. “This year, when I was invited to see if the fort could be the venue for the theatrical, I got an opportunity to explore it further. When I saw this particular space at the fort that led to the open ground where a stone-made platform was present, the first visual that came to me as a mirage was a passionate flamenco dancer performing right at the centre of the platform. That moment was the starting point of the artistic journey,” says Singh.

One of the sequences from the performance night at the Gwalior Fort | Photo Credit: Sarah Singh One of the sequences from the performance night at the Gwalior Fort | Photo Credit: Sarah Singh

The idea of having desire as the theme occurred intuitively. “The region is home to so many historical sculptures that explore desire and eroticism, which confirmed my intuition. During my on-site visits to the fort, I realised that its remoteness from the city below made it the perfect spot for young lovers to meet discreetly in the afternoon—where large open windows on the fort’s facade would become the perfect location to hold hands and gaze at each other, far from the judgement of others. This real-life experience again confirmed that desire permeated this ground.”

The epilogue and prologue—titled Echoes Never Die—paid a fitting tribute to the ethos of Gwalior—the birthplace of Tansen. Three Hindustani classical musicians brought the audience into the dreamy world and led them out of it. The epilogue and the prologue had different tonalities and rhythms—the beginning was a soft, dream-like, mysterious, ethereal piece of music. “The idea was awaken the state of consciousness as a form of desire. For the exiting sequence, I wanted them to create something that had more complexities so that it felt like a hard exit and the dream had now vanished the way some desires disappear,” Singh explains. These musicians were in a commanding position—at the fort balcony—overlooking the whole act. They were never seen, but their music paved the way, and the element of light added to the visualisation.

The performance was divided into three acts—Call Me, Love in the Tropics, and A Street Cart Named Desire, respectively. The act began with a group of students selected from local dance and theatre colleges standing tangled, with their backs to face each other. They gradually untangled and disappeared. “The act was inspired by a semi-erotic montage on one of the columns in the Saas-Bahu temple at the Gwalior Fort. The act of tangling and untangling represented the desire to be in a communal state as well as the desire of wanting to break free,” explains Singh.

“As an artist, I create the atmosphere, so that the viewer is offered an opportunity to interpret, question.” Kapoori Bai, who works at a workshop that makes model aircraft, was an inspiration behind one of the performances Photo Credit: Sarah Singh Kapoori Bai, who works at a workshop that makes model aircraft, was an inspiration behind one of the performances Photo Credit: Sarah Singh

While some desires were permanently present on the stage, some were fleeting. The one woman who unintentionally emerged as the protagonist of the act was Kapoori Bai. She was present from the start to the end—standing still, holding a model of a plane in her hands. The spotlight was on her all the time. She is not a performer; in fact, she is a daily wager who works at a workshop in Gwalior that makes miniature planes. “When I first met her at the workshop, she was the only woman working there. To me, she represented the desire for aspiration. Her standalone act also represented someone who wants her life to change, but it’s not changing and yet she is holding on to the desire—not letting that dream die,” explains Singh.

Another performer who was present throughout was a woman wearing a yellow saree, sitting on a red sofa, occasionally combing her hair. She sat alone but seemed content, at peace. She represented the twin desires of wanting to be left alone/waiting for a loved one to arrive. This is a universal state in which all of us find ourselves at different life stages.

The highlight of the performance was that local artistes and students got an opportunity to share the stage with renowned performers from 15 different countries. Each of the desires depicted by the international artists was carefully chosen. The flamenco performers depicted the desire for passion. Their imposing presence on the stage represented the passion to be seen/heard. The opera performers were moving meditatively throughout in a defined, looping pattern, depicting both entrapment and creating mesmerising quality. The act represented the eternal quest for the lyricism of beauty.

The five trombonists with their large musical instruments explored the open ground as wanderers—reinventing themselves through the absurd, the melancholic, and the faraway—all profound facets of the state of desire.

The Portuguese artist wore a long trench coat and was the most mysterious character of the act, who appeared and disappeared and then again showed up unexpectedly. He depicted the fleeting nature of some desires—they appear at an unexpected stage in your life, like magic, and disappear unexpectedly. The Austrian mime artists offered a window into a kind of superficial intimacy, most notably when they cast shadows on the fort wall as a form of play.

The kaleidoscopic coexistence of narratives was defined and redefined by the light and sound design team, with occasional live direction by Singh.

The core artistic emphasis relied on an improvisational, reactionary approach. At one memorable moment, a street dog wandered through the staging ground with a nervous curiosity. The spotlight shifted to the wandering dog, momentarily creating a cohesion with the setting as it is typically lived against the constructed artifice of the evening. Light and sound were the key drivers of the audience’s attention—shadow and silence were as significant as light and sound—evoking intriguing suggestions about visible and hidden desires.

Another striking aspect of the performance was the manner in which the artistes were transitioning from one act to the other. A street cart—depicting the desire for accessible entrepreneurship and the possibility of instant gratification—enters the scene and tells you that Act 1 has arrived. Next, an artist paints ‘Act 2’ on a bamboo wall. Just before the third act, a vibrant street-styled procession full of lively characters from the local theatre school passes by, informing you about the beginning of the third act. During all the transitions, you expect something to change in the setup, but the staging ground remains the complex portrait of colliding desires that don’t seem to ever find a conclusion.

“The entire piece was about breaking the conventions of theatre and evoking narratives rather than telling them. It was about merging cinema and theatre so that the live experience appeared like a film come to life. As an artist, I create the atmosphere, so the viewer is offered an opportunity to interpret and even walk away with questions—to ponder at a macro or micro level where you are in this world,” says Singh.

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The performance was based on the twin themes of desire and sustainability. The commemorative costumes, props and staging were made utilising found, recycled and natural materials as much as possible. The artifacts and costumes were later exhibited at the Jai Vilas Palace Museum and were on view at Purana Qila, Delhi, from December 5-10.

After the performance, as the audience was dispersing, we met Kapoori Bai—the lady holding steadfastly onto the plane—and asked her whether given a chance, would she take a flight and go someplace farlvbet, far away? She flashed a shy smile and said: “Sharing the stage with so many artists was not something that I had imagined. This is a big moment for me. The desire to sit in a plane can wait. For now, I am happy making them.” And just like that, her fleeting desire melted with the disappearance of the theatrical setting.