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Where are the tickets?
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Bangaloreans are going crazy trying to get tickets to Ranga Shankara
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Rehearsal in progress at Ranga Shankara — Photos: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
WHO SAID Bangaloreans didn't care about theatre? A madness has descended upon the city, with people working themselves into a frenzy to watch a play, any play, at the newly opened Ranga Shankara. Truly devoted theatregoers began making arrangements to buy festival tickets as soon as sales began. But despite meticulous planning, many of them have had to go away disappointed.
Tickets came in two batches and were immediately snapped up; in some cases, even before they arrived. Arts writer Aditi De rushed to get her tickets when the first batch arrived at Sankar's. She bought the available tickets and gave them a list of the tickets she wanted for the remaining plays. She made eight phone calls and four visits over the next week to check on ticket status: they had not arrived.
The next time she got back to Sankar's, they had the tickets for her, except for the two Habib Tanvir plays. "I had my heart set on watching those plays," says Aditi. "I have never watched Habib Tanvir and I feel my education is incomplete without having seen his plays. Just when you think you've been so organised and set it all up, you find no tickets. I wanted to bawl," she laments.
Vincent Gomez, the branch-in-charge of Sankar's, says they found it cruel to keep tickets aside for customers, adding that tickets for the Habib Tanvir plays were sold in one hour flat.
None at Hutch
But some tickets didn't reach the outlets of Hutch at all. Theatre enthusiast Vani Ganesh was in constant touch with the Hutch outlet at Seshadripuram, and was informed by a helpful sales staff the minute the tickets arrived. She rushed there to find that the tickets had arrived, but they were only for a few Kannada plays. The outlet personnel said tickets did not arrive at all for plays such as Habib Tanvir's Charan Das Chor and Ratan Thiyam's Ritusamharam.
Hutch representative Avinash Talwar denies this, saying rapid sales could explain why it appeared as if the tickets had not arrived at all. Hutch's publicity blitz for the festival might have worked against them in the end though: enthusing too many people to buy tickets to what is a very intimate space, resulting in more people left out than included.
Large signs at the airport encourage visitors to roam on Hutch and be treated to a "surprise" — with the use of the Ranga Shankara insignia suggesting the "surprise" might be linked to the festival — but phenomenal ticket sales have precluded any such possibility and now, stuck with the enticing posters, Hutch personnel explain that Hutch is "better" not because of bonus ticket offers, but because it has, uh... "better roaming facilities".
No siphoning
Arundhati Nag of Ranga Shankara admits there have been some teething problems since this is the 35-day festival's first year. But "the tickets are finally going to people," she emphasises, "whether they bought it at Sankar's or elsewhere. We have kept no tickets for ourselves and personally I have no tickets for even my family."
In response to complaints of no tickets to the "big" shows, she points out that there are two shows of plays featuring big names, and that many Kannada plays will return later. "We couldn't have more shows, because we would end up with a 60-day festival," she says.
For those rueing the fact that they haven't managed a visit to the theatre yet, take heart.
Despite the sold-out status for plays such as Aik Thee Nani starring sisters Zohra Segal and Uzra Butt, Ranga Shankara still sells tickets on even these evenings, under a quota comprising "returns" from various sources. So prepare to join a long line and try your luck: the season has only just begun.
HEMANGINI GUPTA
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