Na.Muthuswamy’s Play “Appaavum Pillaiyum”

Na. Muthuswamy’s play “Appaavum Pillaiyum” won't make you snore. I promise. Though it’s an absurd play , it has the pleasure of text. A very interesting play to be staged.

“ Theatre of absurd has a sense of metaphysical anguish towards the absurdity of the human condition.People should learn to appreciate such productions.”

- Martin Esslin

Martin Esslin coined the term “Theatre of Absurd” in the year 1962 and Na.Muthuswamy has written his first absurd play (kaalam kaalamaaga) in the year 1968.

Muthuswamy is an avant – garde playwright in Tamil.

“Appavum Pillaiyum” means Father and Son. This play offers a tragicomic outlook on human existence. Muthuswamy has achieved a theoretical impossibility in this play in which three Ramaswamys are conversing among themselves.

Author Muthuswamy has lost his father at the age of seven. He frets a lot about his father’s death. If his father had lived for some more years, his childhood and youth life would have been brightened. This is the basic sorrow of the protagonist in Appavum pillaiyum.

It’s a struggling life. Ramaswamy has to achieve and win in his challenging life.

The story travels in this chennai and Punjai village. There is a quantum jump and sudden significant change.

Ramaswamy explains happenings in the road when he goes to meet his friend.

His detailed reminiscence of childhood and father is beautifully described by Author.

There are other dreamy characters like Amma, Periyappa, Rasavayyar, Pavadai, Ponnuswamy, Vairakkannu, journalist and an unseen friend.

Author of this play is a renowned , significant short story writer also. His revelation has promted him to change direction to work as a playwright. We can witness the elements of a classic short story also in Appavum Pillaiyum.

Author has successfully utilised the stream of consciousness throughout the play.

Every theatre person and book reader in Tamil world has a great admiration for Muthuswamy’s work. That is what it is. It has epic, heroic.. What he has achieved.

This play is a nightmare from which Author Muthuswamy is trying to awake.

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