A mixed bag
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The plays staged at the Yuva Natakothsava revealed an uneven selection
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LAUGH RIOT Heegadre Hege? had the audience in splits
While everyone is praising the increasing theatre-culture in Bangalore over the last few years, State-run agencies seem to be taking it easy for some strange reason. The four-day Yuva Natakothsava organised by the National school of Drama's regional resource centre at the ADA Ranga Mandira not only showed how bad the selection of plays can be for a festival but also seemed to take the theatre lovers for granted.
Four plays were staged at the festival, which started off on a high-note with "Heegadre Hege?" a Kannada play based on the writings of the famous author Sunandamma and adapted to stage by K.Y.Narayanaswamy. With excellent action from Laxmi Chandrashekar, the play had its audiences in splits. The next day saw "Siddartha," a play in Malayalam based on Herman Hesse's novel. Directed by M. G. Jotish of the Abhinaya theatre research centre from Thiruvanathapuram, it had the celebrated Raghutamman play the role of the protagonist. With excellent music, cast and visual communication the players proved that one need not know Malayalam to understand the play. The director must also be appreciated for the minimum use of sets. Almost every prop used was easily handled by a bunch of extremely talented and enthusiastic actors. This reflected on the professional training that these actors received. Abhinaya troupe were in the Ranga Shankara festival last year with their much-acclaimed "Palangal" (bridges). That play won them a huge appreciation. It was probably the same confidence that audiences invested in their performance and turned up in house-full. The troupe stuck to their elegance to prove the point.
The plays selected for the next two days were clearly bad choices. The third day had the famous Koothu-p-pattarai from Chennai stage "Paramartha Guru," a satire in Tamil based on Veeramunivar's story. Directed by Aparna Gopinath, the play turned out to be an utter disappointment. The play started off well with a eunuch narrating the story. The story is of one Paramartha guru and his five foolish disciples. It patches a series of incidents in their lives. The highly predictable script and direction with slapstick comedy saw half the audience walk out of the theatre.
The worst part is the auditorium authorities locked the entrance doors from the outside keeping irritated audiences loudly knocking on the doors and disturbing the other viewers. One wonders who would take responsibility in case of fire.
One could not believe it was the same troupe that had performed "Padukalam" last year in Bangalore and won applause. Folk theatre, one of the most difficult and serious genres in theatre, is also unfortunately taken for granted by many troupes. Bad costumes, inappropriate dialogue delivery and amateur action are often noticed in this genre. With professional training, folk theatre can still be proved substantial and meaningful.
Free-hand adaptation
The fourth and the last day saw Ranga Adhyana Kendra from Kundapura stage a free-hand adaptation Bertolt Brecht's "Chalk Circle." Directed by Vasantha Bannadi, this play also turned out to be one that repelled audiences. There have been hundreds of adaptations of European drama in the past. Each director tries to give their `personal touch' to plays and in that process spoil it. One thing that young directors must learn is to avoid free-adaptations of classics if they are not confident enough that they are going to do any justice to the original.
The main reason this festival was called Yuva Natakothsava was because all the plays were directed by young directors. While one must appreciate the effort put in by these young directors, one must also contemplate on the selection of plays. Bad selection reflects on the seriousness of the organizers. Being the only State-run agency with ample funding the NSD-RRC cannot be excused for putting together such a flawed festival. This festival not only showed the laziness of the organizers but also showed that Bangalore audiences knew to differentiate between good and bad theatre. One can only hope the next festival they organize will be better then this one.
VIJAY SAI
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
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Thiruvananthapuram
