Theatre bonanza

Theatre lovers, enthusiasts and experts experienced and witnessed a series of plays by well known playwrights, which surely enthralled them and touched their hearts to the very core. 

A series of plays, namely Rajrakto, Chitrapata, Dopehri and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was staged as a part of the18th Bharat Rang Mahostsav on Friday in the national Capital.

“The first play Rajrakto is based on Rabindranath Tagore’s Bisarjan, Sacrifice and Rajarshi. The play, which was performed by IFTA (Institute of Factual Theatre Arts) Kolkata, has been directed by Debasish Dutta. The background of this play gave an opportunity to the director to explore the nature of terrorist activities in the modern world. 

Clinging to the folk vein, Kannada’s famous poet and playwright H S Venkatesha Murthy, had put on stage an imaginary episode that is different from the original Ramayana. The play, titled Chitrapata, has been directed by Manjunath L. Badiger and the performers were a part of a group named Samashti from Bengaluru.When asked about the play, director H S Venkatesha Murthy said: “This play has been inspired by one of the folk poems of Helavanakatte Giriyamma. Our folk artists have analysed The Ramayana and given it their own unique perspective in this play. The play takes a pro-women stance and tries to search for answers to the atrocities being inflicted on womankind through Seetha’s character”, said H S Venkatesha Murthy. 

Directed by Pankaj Kapur and performed by Theatron, Mumbai, Dopehri is set in the streets of Lucknow where the haveli of an old lonely woman, Amma Bi, is situated. Pankaj Kapur brings to us her story, reading and bringing alive the characters, stringing us through the emotions and nuances of these characters and the milieu of an old Lucknow. Dopheri is a novella written by Pankaj Kapur and now has been rendered by him on stage as well.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari has been written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayeris and directed by Deepan Sivaraman. The play, which has been performed by Performance Studies Collective group from Delhi, is a contemporary take on the 1920 film by the same name, emerging out of spatial experimentation with a focus on objects, some found and others made. 

It is a multimedia performance in which the scenography and dramaturgy emerge together in an attempt to navigate through the run-down warehouse space where the production has been staged. The story of Holstenwall unfolds through multiple layers of visual narratives, slowly peeling off, to keep the audiences at the edges of their seats. 

“The Cabinet of Dr Caligari offers the possibility of looking into the layers of human mind, always floating rather than certain, and complex in nature. In this performance I attempted to explore the possibility of total theatre in which all the aspects of theatre such as scenography, dramaturgy, actor’s performance come together to make it a ‘total’ experience”, said Deepan Sivaraman, director of the play.