REVIEW OF THE FESTIVAL IN ORISSA IN INDIAN EXPRESS Wit and satire take centre stage By Diana Sahu | ENS Published: 16th November 2013 01:18 PM Last Updated: 16th November 2013 01:18 PM The inaugural play of the theatre festival by Kalindi Bratyojan, a group from Kolkata, enthralled the audience with Ruddha Sangeet (stifled song of the outcast), a Bengali play on Rabindra Sangeet exponent Debabrata Biswas’s struggle against the establishment. The play presented the way the creative spirit has always been dominated by institutions in power never allowing individuals to flourish. It urged artists to continue fighting against the forces that try to bind or stifle them. The second day of the festival saw ‘Aakash’, by Assam-based Seagull Theatre, a comic drama amidst the tensions surrounding human life. The play based on a short story written by Bhabendranath Saikia, showed the concerns of a father whose daughter is about to get married. Its dramatisation and direction was done by theatre personality Baharul Islam, founder of the group. In ‘Aakash’, the protagonist Jyotirmoy Choudhury is a concerned father who receives an unknown letter revealing the love trysts of his would-be son-in-law. With only six days to go for the wedding, the old man starts having sleepless nights and thinks what might happen to his daughter, if he gives her away to such a person. Choudhury wakes up one night perturbed with hidden fear of the consequences of the impending danger. He recollects the day when his daughter was born, the celebrations and happiness in their life. He recalls the women who had come to his life at different times before his marriage. He finds that even he had affairs and thus realises that such issues matter little. Just as he is about to share his thoughts with his wife, she tells him the same thing herself - “Don’t worry, this happens in everybody’s life. In future, everything will be okay.” Soon, his philosophical realisation morphs into suspicion towards his wife and a new cause of concern takes root in his mind. Satire marked the third evening of the festival. Lokadharmi Theatre group from Kochi presented a contemporary theatre adaptation of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer’s satirical story, Viswavikhyathamaya Mookku (The World-Renowned Nose). Rendered in a mix of Malayalam and gibber, the production sought to heighten the satire ingrained in the Basheerian story by the use of masks coupled with grotesque, swift movements in the performance idiom. It narrated the story of an idiotic cook finding himself sporting a growing nose one fine morning. The nose grows exceptionally large and evokes varied feelings, from revulsion in the beginning to adulation and reverence in the end. The growing nose costs the cook his job, but the controversial olfactory organ brings him fame and celebrity status. The story - jointly dramatised and directed by Professor of Theatre in the Washington State University School of Music and Theatre Arts Terry Converse and Lokadharmi director Prof. Chandradasan - was a challenging production as the actors communicated through masks. People also got to see the one-and-a-half hour long ‘Godot Aaya Kya’, a Hindi adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s classic drama, ‘Waiting for Godot’, directed by Satyabrata Rout. Comprising of three acts, the play spoke of nothing - it was a dramatic conceptualisation of two men, Vladimir (Satyabrata Rout) and Estragon (Vasudev Venketraman), waiting for ‘Godot’ by a tree on a countryside road. However, once the play progressed in true style of black comedy, one realised the bitter truths of life. Like Vladimir and Estragon, we are all waiting in our lives; for reasons unknown to us. Although, it was a Hindi adaptation, the screenplay was crafted so beautifully that the audience forgot that it is originally a Western script. It never seemed odd that the two characters, who had names like Vladimir and Estragon and who were dressed in Western tramp clothing - hats, boots, jackets, and suspenders and all - were speaking Hindi. Curtains came down on the festival with Hindi play ‘Hibakusha’ by Banjara Theatre Group. ‘Hibakusha’, a Japanese term for ‘those who were bombed’, was a poignant story of a family, fighting the horrifying memories of a nuclear war that not just changed a nation but also the world. Living with the demons of what they have witnessed, a family struggles within itself: to look behind at the past or embrace the future…to choose between their loved ones…to fight the facts or to surrender to the fate. Not only does it intensely portray how humans would always create and rebuild, but also how love heals anything. The festival was organised by Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi and Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre to showcase contemporary theatre in India.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 03:12:43 +0000