ranga shankara

It’s not often that I attend a play without prior planning, but this happened to me when my friend Prathap invited me, after rather a long day outdoors, to “Still and Still Moving” at Ranga Shankara on 31st October 2015, staged by Tadpole Repertory Theatre. It was worth the effort of changing tracks, from nature to theatre. You can find Tadpole Rep’s blog here,   and they are on FaceBook,   here. A Delhi-based group, their professionalism in all departments of stagecraft was outstanding. I will be listing the cast and crew at the end, so I may not mention…

After a long absence, it was refreshing to enter my favourite theatre space, Ranga Shankara, once again, this time to watch a Hindi play, "Rocky Ka Insaaf", staged by Mashaal.   The play has been expanded from a ten-minute vignette that was staged as part of the "Great Galata Festival" at Ranga Shankara in 2013.     The main protagonist, Rocky, takes a journey into the world of the common man today; a world where “development”, while raising the standard of living in material terms for some people, leaves others untouched in India. Rampant corruption, the me-vs.-you attitude of the…

Bengali plays are not very common at Ranga Shankara, so I was quite keen to watch this Badal Sircar play, produced by Centre for Film and Drama (CFD), and directed by Nilanjan  P Choudhry.   For this play, a neat brochure had been prepared by CFD  and the write up described it as a "fast-paced comedy".   Bogota(sic) Charit Manas depicts the journey of a young orphan, whose naivety and lack of self-esteem leads him to be bullied at every turn. Driven to the brink of suicide at the prospect  of having to become a "ghar jamai" at his maternal…

I thought it was difficult to write a review of a play I liked very much; I did not want to sound as if the theatre group had sponsored my review!But alas, the difficulty of that task is nothing compared to that of writing a review for a play that left me completely cold. Whatever the impression the play has on a member of the audience....the fact remains that a lot of effort and time has been invested in the production. For this reason alone I would like to find some positives in any play that I watch, and write…

Occasionally, instead of a light-hearted evening of theatre, one gets a  powerful, thought-provoking play to watch. My friend Shangon and I braved the rain to go and watch Michael Freyn's play, "Copenhagen" which was being produced by Centre for Film and Drama. I had not read up about the play, or watched it before.There can be no better synopsis than the online one that Ranga Shankara has on its online schedule:"Frayn's play, Copenhagen, speculates what might have transpired during a meeting between Nobel laureates Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in September 1941, at the height of the German…

Theatre Professionals, a part of the  Drama School, Mumbai, staged "The Dragon", translated from the Soviet author and playwright, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Shvarts">  Evgeny Shvarts </a>This  is a play written in 1944.. The excellent translation, bringing the action forward to a contemporary time, was done by  Harsh Khurana.As a reviewer, I usually watch the first show.  This time, for a change, I decided to watch the last one, and see how the successive stagings had honed the production values.A film of the play was made in 1988. I thought it would be interesting to watch how germane the concepts of totalitarianism, first…

Any form of theatre that has to do with puppets seems to exert a great fascination for children. More than adults, they seem to quickly suspend their disbelief, and join the puppets in the fantasy world that is created on stage. Sidhvi, 6 yrs, standing in front of me in the queue, was very excited; "I have seen many plays at Ranga Shankara, I'm looking forward to this one!" she said, with a big smile.  Since Ranga Shankara had advertised "Pacotille", by Cie Crea, as a play for "kids above 5 years", I went,too,  full of eagerness to experience the…

I find it interesting to watch a translation of a play; watching "Maryade Prashne", a translation, by Surendranath, of "Respect", a play in German by Lutz Huebner was an experience on several levels. In the foyer. Pic: Deepa Mohan I was curious to know how a play set in Germany would fit into the present-day milieu, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it melding in so perfectly. It sent out the first message of the play to me...that human equations, and power plays are common to humanity and not restricted to one culture or one nation. The play started…

It was good to get back to Ranga Shankara and theatre after a long hiatus, and it so happened that it was a play from the land I had left behind! Poorna Jagannathan Productions was staging, as part of the Martin Moran India tour, his play, "The Tricky Part". The play, written and performed by Martin Moran, is the story of his life.  Between the ages of 12 and 15, he had a sexual relationship with a much older man, who was actually a counselor he met at a Catholic boys' camp. How he resolves the ancient conflicts, and his…

Once in a while, instead of attending intense, issue-based plays, it's good to go and have an evening of pure, unadulterated fun in the theatre! And so it proved, when I went to watch "Bade Miyaan Deewane", staged by Rangbaaz Group, in association with Rashmi Sharma Telefilms.     A scene from the play, "Bade Miyaan Deewane", staged at Ranga Shankara on 7 and 8 June 2014   Directed by Imran Rasheed (who also essayed the role of Mir Saheb), the play is an adaptation of Shauqat Tanvi's novel "Budhbas", written in a lighter vein in Urdu. Thanvi's sure touch…