Theatre

Situated beside the Ramanjaneya Temple in Hanumantha Nagar, this auditorium was gathering dust until three years ago. Today, it is a sought after auditorium for theatre groups. Pic: Deepthi M S A few years ago, P D Sathish Chandra, actor and a part of the theatre group Pradarshana Kala Samsthe (Pra.Ka.Sam.), a non-profit arm unit of Fourth Corner communication consultants, was looking out for a theatre. He had six plays in the pipeline, and needed an auditorium.He then spotted an auditorium built by the BBMP, which was in a bad state, in Hanumantha Nagar. He got BBMP to lease the…

 When I heard that "Stories in a Song", created by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan, was going to be staged at Ranga Shankara, I was very keen to see what it would be about; because it promised something new. Both performances were sold out!The performance had been staged earlier, when it was created for Arpana, for the Baajaa Gaajaa music festival at Pune in 2011.It is very interesting to watch a practically new genre of theatre...one in which the music takes the centre stage, instead of being an accompaniment and an accent to the main performance, as it usually is.…

"Uncle Sam, put on back your pants" a line from one of the compositions of Jamaican-Canadian-African dub poet D'bi Young Anitafrika is one that rings in my head on a regular basis. It works as an essential reminder of the number of soulless 'uncles' who abuse children sexually. But according to Young who performed at the Jaaga Creative Common Ground in Bengaluru on 28th January 2012, it is also a metaphor for how selfish capitalists continue to rape and ravage life on earth without sparing a thought about the adverse impact of their actions. Well, if they take the good…

Everybody has been talking about Ms. Meena. Every time the play comes to Bangalore, somebody is always telling someone else why they should not miss Ms. Meena (pun unintended). Why, even Citizen Matters has already reviewed the play! At long last, I stood in line, and a long line it was, to watch our darling Ms. Meena. A scene from the play. Pic courtesy: Perch CDs of the play were being sold, and anywhere you looked, all that you could see was a Tamil Maami straight out of a 70s edition of Ananda Vikatan (a magazine). The poster also said…

The Bengaluru Habba featured the staging of Robert Bolt's A Man for all Seasons. For those of us not familiar with Bolt's name, he was an Oscar-winning screenplay writer and playwright, who wrote the screenplays for Dr Zhivago (one of his Oscar efforts) and the legendary Lawrence of Arabia.His other Oscar came from the screenplay adaptation of this play, A Man for all Seasons. The play for the Habba was stage directed by Arjun Sajnani, who is of course known for the high quality of his productions that include Fire and Rain and Tughlaq. This play was no different in…

The literary works of illustrious playwright and poet, Thyagaraja Paramasiva Kailasam or TPK, are, without doubt, the best among the modern day writings in Kannada to date - a captivating mix of humour, poignancy & relevance. His works have an essential realism and meaning that are valid to this day.He remains the soul of Kannada theatre and resides in the heart of every connoisseur of Kannada theatre and poetry. Thyagaraja paramasiva kailasam-hailed as a great humourist and one of the doyens of kannada literature A peek into Kailasam's life:The saga of T P Kailasam (1884 to 1946), begins in southern…

    The newspaper write-up for Dustin Bayi describes the play as "the complex relationship of a Christian family with local rituals and belief in spirit worship". Further "a powerful plot, reputed artists, authentic sets, music, and colorful costumes make this play a must-watch". This write-up seemed exciting enough, particularly in the light of the recent incidents with churches in Mangalore and Bangalore. Also, the play being staged on Christmas Day seemed symbolic as the occasion to watch it. The plot Pic: Kriyative Theatre Dustin Bayi is a short story by Gopalakrishna Aithal. It is adapted for the stage by…

      The Water Station is a critically-acclaimed play written by the Japanese playwright Shogo Ohta. It is the most famous piece of his "Station" trilogy, which includes The Earth Station and The Wind Station. The play was first performed in 1981 with a Japanese cast, and has since been performed all over the world with various actors of diverse origins. Director Sankar Venkateswaran of Theatre Roots and Wings first directed the play for Ninasam in 2010, and this time around he has put together a varied cast auditioned from all over  India. Scene From the rehearsals. Pic courtesy:…

"Other Voices" 1 Madhav Bagh, a Ranga Shankara "Other Voices" presentation, featuringRevathy, returns this week-end. The play is written by Chetan Datar,translated by Shanta Gokhale, and directed by Mariam Jetpurwala. Theshows are at 9:45 pm on Sat, Nov 19 and 9:30 PM on Sun, Nov 20. Theduration of the play is 40 mins.Tickets are available at Ranga Shankara and indianstage.in. Given theintimate space of an "Other Voices" performance, the number of seatsis very limited."Other Voices" is a unique theatre experience at Ranga Shankara. It istheatre performed in an intimate space, after the show in the mainauditorium, in an informal setting (for…

"I am 80 years old. I have spent 76 years in theatre", when I heard the senior citizen on the stage say this, I thought he must have got mixed up. But I was wrong. He joined the Chamundeshwari Karnataka Nataka Sabha, which was then run by Nandi Basappa for the Mysore Palace authorities, at the age of four because of abject poverty. "My father was an archaka (priest) in a small temple. His income was not sufficient to feed our family of seven", says R Paramasivan. He can can sing 1260 Ranga Geethegalu (songs from the plays) from his…