The yearlong celebrations to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the Konkani Tiatro is in progress and I compliment all who are involved in this activity.
According to some Tiatrologists, during the second 25 years of Tiatro this beautiful art went into the hands of undisciplined and third grade Tiatrists who made bad use of this Stage, vulgarity and personal “Zupattis” became top priority of many of such Tiatrists for whom the Pai Tiatrist Joao Agostinho Fernandes with tears in his eyes at Cross Maidan in Bombay, called “ROSTAD TIATRISTS”. He said “I feel sorry for this beautiful art created by Lucazinho Ribeiro and developed by him and me, is gone into the hands of Rostad Tiatrists”.
Again after 125 years we still see this vulgarity carried forward by some comedian Tiatrists who are encouraged in this direction by their directors to make the audience laugh. Those who patronize these vulgar comedians mainly the illiterate ones, are equally vulgar.
Very few people may have seen what I have seen about Tiatros and Tiatrists and hence I can rightly say that the yesteryear Tiatirsts were far better than the current ones. Some of these young comedians alone will be responsible to drive away the qualitative audience from attending the Tiatros because this audience will never like the vulgarity. These days after seeing the Tiatros of the so called topmost directors I noticed how cheaply they have mortgaged their leadership to the vulgar comedian Tiatrists.
As it is, the younger generation is not keen to watch Tiatros and due to their dislike, I am sure in 10-15 years the Tiatros importance will diminish. Unless there is total revolution to bring back the lost glory of Tiatro, I am afraid and God forbid, Tiatro may see its end.
A.Veronica Fernandes.