Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
It’s back. And how!
|
The third edition of the MetroPlus Theatre Festival at Chennai is marked by diverse content and a strong international flavour
|
PHOTO: LUKE RATRAY
VARIETY FARE "Checkpoint: Three Strangely Normal Plays"
It's been almost a year in the making. Endless correspondence and networking to bring together a diverse spectacle of theatre — all on one platform.
Yes, the MetroPlus Theatre Festival is back. And this time, it’s huge, ambitious and very, very different.
All right, we admit we said pretty much the same thing last year. But for us, each year is an attempt to improve on the previous and Edition III is a big departure from the first two. With the participation of four international groups, the Festival this year has a strong international flavour. Two of these groups (from Berlin and Chicago) are professional repertory companies — a signal that the Festival has the potential to become a truly international event.
"Ristorante Immortale"
The sheer size of some of the perfomances suggests that the Festival has acquired the capacity to provide a platform of theatre that is ambitious and staged on a grand scale. For instance, from Manipur, we have a group directed by a man who has acquired a cult status in the Indian theatre scene with his cast of 27. From Sri Lanka, we have a group of 15 that has a reputation for performing cutting edge experimental theatre. And from Mumbai, we have a similar sized group performing one of the most successful plays staged in the city in recent times.
The dozen plays that make up the Festival, of which four are staged for the first time by popular Chennai theatre groups, traverse different genres, cultures and, even, languages.
"Nine Hills One Valley"
There’s ‘Ristorante Immortale’ by the well-known Berlin-based Familie Flöz, an international pool of artistes — “actors, musicians, dancers, directors, mask-, light- and costume designers, dramatic advisors and other good souls from ten nations” — based in Berlin. Their play ‘Ristorante Immortale’, an award-winning wordless comedy that has performed all over Europe, uses masks, movement and music to create an intriguingly humorous story. The Guardian described it as “a show based on great skill and terrific observational comedy” and a Swiss reviewer called it “stunning, perfectly choreographed chaos.”
‘To the Death of my Own Family’, featuring Farah Bala from Awaken Productions, New York, is a heart-wrenching monologue that exposes racial prejudices through the eyes of Nadeema, a spirited Afghan-American woman who returns to Afghanistan to help her father, only to witness the carnage of her family. Detained in the United States on her way ‘home’, she is asked to justify her journey and US citizenship.
From closer home, we have ‘Checkpoint: Three Strangely Normal Plays’ by the Colombo-based Stages Theatre Group. Directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera, ‘Checkpoint’ explores the conflict in Sri Lanka with the use of experimental devices. Of special interest is the last of the three plays, which uses the forum theatre technique to draw the audience in to shape the substance of the play and attempt to resolve the conflicts between the characters on stage.
"Dear Bapu"
From Chicago, Pegasus Players will stage ‘My Soul is a Witness,’ which vividly recaptures those dramatic days of racial discrimination and the tireless struggle for equality. The way they tell it, “it was a war fought with prayer and song.” So, the group uses music, from spectacular gospel to robust protest songs to illustrate immediacy, and communicate emotion.
In an attempt to bring fresh, unconventional, individualistic theatre to the city, the national players are also diverse.
The Chorus Repertory Theatre from Manipur promises a grand spectacle with ‘Nine Hills One Valley, a haunting theatrical production that uses allegory to confront the turmoil and troubles that are consuming Manipur. Ratan Thiyam — the celebrated director, playwright, musician and painter whose plays are routinely showcased all over the world — calls it a “poem by birth, a collage of many ideas without a conventional plot.”
"Black With Equal"
Celebrated actor/director/ playwright Vikram Kapadia from Masque, Mumbai will present Black With ‘Equal’, a satirical black comedy that takes an unsentimental look at contemporary society. Featuring a high-powered cast, the play peels the layers of forced civility in a regular Mumbai Housing Society meeting, which “collapses into mayhem, with a generous seasoning of communal prejudice, bigotry and violence thrown in… to capture the order of the day, not only in our city, but all over the world,” according to Kapadia. The play, which has done a number of re-runs, has been very popular with the Mumbai audiences.
The Festival will also – for the first time – present a double bill, with Farah Bala being followed by Harami Theatre from Bangalore. This young and creative group will stage ‘Butter and Mashed Banana,’ a sparkling, funny and animated play, which goes from three actors in real life to three characters on stage caught up in a frenzy of seemingly random activity. The story, liberally laced with music and movement, follows a boy who goes on to become a famous writer and faces rabid opposition to anything he tries to say or do.
"Butter And Mashed Banana"
On a more serious note is the meticulously created ‘Dear Bapu,’ a play that is essentially a collection of letters between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Directed by Mohan Maharishi, a former Director of the National School of Drama, and a hugely respected figure in the theatre world, the play features three of Delhi’s best acting talents — Bhaskar Ghose, Suneet Tandon and Sabina Mehta. The production uses multimedia to place the ideas of these great leaders in a way that captivates and intellectually stimulates the audience.
"To The Death Of My Own Family"
There is also a strong representation of Chennai plays, with four of them being performed under The Chennai Chapter as a special event of the Festival (see accompanying box). All four plays will be performed at the Sivagami Pethachi auditorium.
As always, the Festival will be more than a string of performances. Workshops, opportunities to interact with actors and directors, and other events are being planned. Watch this space!
Presenting sponsor: Bose. Associate Sponsors: HSBC and Ford Fusion. Beverage partner: Bru. Hospitality partner: The Park, Chennai. Travel partner: Jet Airways. Logistics Partner: Evam.
SHONALI MUTHALALY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
