JOIN USIn his note as artistic director of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) 2015, Sankar Venkateswaran talks about resistance as a trigger to “theatres, performances and even societies”.
As curator of the seventh edition of ITFoK – held in Thrissur where 25 plays from India and abroad will be staged between January 10 and 17 – the acclaimed producer-director sees resistance as one of the festival’s central themes; “To not resist is to yield, to surrender and to be passive”, says the artistic director’s note.
The latest edition of the festival, built on the theme of Theatres of Resistance, Theatres of Today, will be held at five venues in Thrissur.
ITFoK 2015 opens with a performance of Lucena/Obedience Training, a play based on Henrik Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean, by Lebanese group Zoukak Theatre Company. Zoukak performs three more plays – He who saw everything, Death comes through the eyes and I hate theatre, I love pornography – in the festival this year; there are also plays from Palestine (The Island), Egypt (House of Light) and Tunisia (Hamlet).
Theatre from the strife-torn regions of West Asia becomes a natural choice in an event that in many ways is defined by a spirit of dissent against overpowering, absolute authority.
Western interferences in our daily lives will also resonate in plays at the festival this year. History of histories/Traitriot, a double-bill performance by Sellathurai Srikannan and Venuri Perera from Sri Lanka, adds to this mix.
The festival’s organisers reckon that the presence of performers and producers from other countries, including Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, adds a distinct grain of political upheaval to the 2015 edition. The effort has also been to introduce new acts with fresh content to the Indian stage.
“A few have responded to the festival schedule with awe and wonder. I had someone calling from Kasaragod to confirm that theatre groups from Palestine and Lebanon are actually going to perform here. He was making sure that all of this is for real,” says Venkateswaran.
The Island, an English play performed by Freedom Theatre, traces the socio-political turmoil of Palestine through excesses of the abusive Israeli political prison system.
The production is inspired by an apartheid-era story set in a prison. Ibsen is also inspiration for House of Light, performed by La musica Independent Theatre Group from Egypt. Based on Rosmersholm by the master playwright, the Arabic play with English subtitles follows its protagonist who, after representing the “regime and religiosity”, sets out to explore his spirituality and self without interventions by the political powers of his time.
“I hate theatre, I love pornography” performed by Zoukak Theatre Company is another Ibsen-inspired play that questions the “contemporary tragedy of the individual”.
Venkateswaran reiterates that this edition of the festival looks beyond trappings and some of the grand staples of modern-day theatre.
“These are not productions that are mounted as spectacles for the stage; the idea is not to have a celebratory spirit attached to these plays. The festival this year aims to bring to the fore human struggles and suffering,” he says. Death comes through the eyes, another play performed by Zoukak Theatre Company, discusses incongruities in representation of mass and individual deaths as reported by the media.
Eminent Japanese theatre director Hiroshi Koike will stage the second chapter of his non-verbal Mahabharata project at the festival. The project is anchored as an abstract creation transcending cultural borders and staged with stunning visual landscapes.
Made in Bangladesh (Germany), Fashion Zombie and Touchscreen (Denmark), Happy Days (Japan) and SoftMachine (Singapore) are other plays by international groups. SoftMachine is part of a project that roots itself in research across Asia to inspire experiments in choreography. Rajiv Krishnan’s How to skin a giraffe, Abhilash Pillai’s Avudai, and Andorra, written by Max Frisch and performed by the School of Drama and Fine Arts, are among the Indian productions staged during IFToK 2015.
The organisers are trying to take forward efforts to re-emphasise relevance of regional theatre by including six Malayalam radio plays in the festival schedule.
Producers, directors and performers will share facets of their art and concerns during daily debates and meet-ups scheduled between January 12 and 17. Late-night Theyyam performances have also been scheduled as part of IFToK 2015.
The plays will be staged at the K T Muhammed Theatre, Actor Murali Memorial Theatre, N N Pillai Tent Theatre and Natyagruham, apart from open space venues.
Close to 60 per cent of the tickets, priced at Rs 20 each, were sold online while the rest of the tickets are being sold through counters at the venue on the day of the performance.
The ITFoK that first set stage for independent and experimental theatre groups from across the world in 2008 is organised by the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, an autonomous body under the State Department of Culture. For details on the event, log on to www.theatrefestivalkerala.com.