Vikram Iyengar - Theatre Director & Performing Arts Researcher, India

Dear Richard and Judie

I was shocked to hear of the Arts Council of Wales notification to CPR. The idea that CPR as I have known it is threatened is very disturbing. My association with and memories of CPR go far further than the experience at the Summer Shift in 2005, when a group of us came over as Ranan. I have known it as a student and much of my personal convictions as a performer, director and performing arts researcher have come out of the varied experiences I had through CPR.

CPR exists and functions on the edge – geographically, conceptually and unpredictably. The first is obvious – Aberystwyth! I remember that till 1999 I had never heard of the town let alone tried to pronounce it. But a year later I was there, part and parcel of the Department of Theatre and CPR. After the Performance Studies International Conference of 1999, the editors of STQ with which I then worked returned to Calcutta and handed me the brochure. Anjum Katyal – the editor – suggested I should check out the website as a possibility for pursuing my MA. She had nothing but warm praise for the place and the set-up – and Anjum is not someone who is easily swayed! As soon as I logged on, the MA in Theatre and the World in particular and the entire relationship between CPR and the Department in general won me over. This was where I wanted to be and I have never for a moment regretted that decision in any way.

When I say on the edge conceptually, I mean that CPR is constantly pushing the boundaries of performance – not as an active company of performers, not even necessarily as a producer, but through the greatly effective, long-term and far reaching activity of opening up minds to possibilities. My world of thought and exposure went through the roof once I encountered CPR – I walked into Aberystwyth and CPR, and walked into the 'Restless Gravity' festival, I walked into a relationship with Firenza that continues to this day as you know. At the edge of the world, I was offered the world on a platter – the mental space that was opened up for me to explore and interpret freely as I would has been a life-altering experience. And this has nothing to do with projects – not to do with the international companies or workshops or performances that CPR offered access. It had everything to do with an attitude, with a desire, with a commitment that CPR embodies. To have it threatened does not affect your immediate circle – it is in many ways undermining the deep connections that students have developed with the Centre year after year after year. One of the major reasons why the Department at UWA is so highly regarded academically is the presence and activity of CPR. I doubt if any other university in the UK – or indeed elsewhere – can boast of such a rich association. Personally, I know without doubt that without CPR and the MA in Theatre and World (which is basically the CPR MA anyway) there would have been little to draw me to Aber apart from its beauty and warmth.
And CPR has always existed on the edge in another way. Constantly taking calculated risks it is to an extent unpredictable. And that is an essential magic that must be part of anything to do with live performance. But perhaps we now live in an age where it is only quantifiable guarantees which receive the nod from the powers that be – the delight of initiating and being part of creative possibility is being nudged out by the staid comfort of packaged product. Therefore, being urged to work on a project basis where all this is addressed is not surprising.

But as a student and later as a faculty member at the Department, I have no hesitation in stating that without CPR as it stands today, the teaching, learning, exploring and discovering that takes place in the Department at UWA will plummet – it will just be yet another competent Drama Department in yet another small town. Is that what we want, is that what the ACW wants, is that what the RAE wants? CPR has placed performing arts in Wales on the map, it has made it something to contend with whether we are talking of artists, audiences or academics. It has made it a field that ripples out in every direction seeking out and creating relationships and exchanges with every other field possible. It has opened the doors to whole new ways of approaching the world of performance … what sense does it make for anyone to put brakes on this?!

It is beyond my understanding.

With warm wishes,
Vikram Iyengar
Theatre Director & Performing Arts Researcher.
Ranan, Kolkota, India