Our Theatre presents its debut production, Beyond the Land of Hattamala, a play written by Badal Sircar. Founded by Sandeep Shikar, an actor, writer and director and Vivek Vijayakumaran, a theatre artist, Our Theatre was originally born out of a need to have a banner for Beyond the Land of Hattamala . However, the connection between Vivek and Sandeep and their belief about theatre ran deeper and so Our Theatre has become more a way of working, a way of doing theatre. "For me, Our Theatre is our thought, our belief, our language, our culture, our complexity, our simplicity, our problems and maybe our solutions. We are interested in something that is ours – things that are rooted in us- and the common man should be able to understand what we are showing," says Sandeep.
This belief in "our" has led the team to its fifth month of work on this play- the work has included workshopping, experimenting, improvisation and discovery. The concept of "our" is so strong that the cast of Beyond the Land of Hattamala even spent three days in a village in Kerala, at the director’s ancestral home, working and exploring a tangible sense of ‘Beyond’ for the play. "It was important for us to bring back our own personal experiences and impressions that we can tap into for the play. We found and created things there that we couldn’t have created in a studio here in the city," adds Vivek.
This play will be presented by Ridhi, a non profit-charitable trust. It seems fitting then, that the company’s first production is written by Badal Sircar, who was instrumental in taking theatre out of the proscenium and onto the street. Sircar pioneered what is known as "Third Theatre," a theatre of natural environment, physical acting, slogans and familiar sounds and documentary material.
About the Play
Two Likeable thieves, Kena and Becha, jump into a river to escape being caught. They wash up on the shores of a Never-Never land where buying and selling are alien concepts. In this new land, everyone works together to produce what the entire community needs and wants and money does not exist. Being thieves, Kena and Becha do not understand the concept of "no-money" and hence several humorous misadventures follow as they make their journey through this land.
We hope that you can be a part of the audience for one of the shows and make the journey with Kena and Becha.
Beyond the Land of Hattamala
3rd April, 7.30 pm
4th April, 3.30 pm, 7.30 pm
Rangashankara
Contact No : 9886390879
About the Director
Vivek Vijayakumaran is a young theatre artist. He trained with Mahesh Dattani while essaying the role of Anarkali, a hijra, in the play Seven Steps Around the Fire. Vivek’s training includes a workshop at Adi Shakti Theatre Arts Laboratory and a year long project with Abhishek Majumdar for the play Lucknow ’76. Vivek has also undertaken training at the Attakkalari Center for Movement Arts and the Kalari Academy of Performing Arts in contemporary dance and kalaripayattu. Vivek currently works with women in slums and children at Head Start school as a theatre facilitator. He is also a storyteller with Kathalaya.⊕