Rangayana Mysuru will stage an adaptation of Girish Karnad’s ‘Agni Mattu Male’ (Fire and Rain) at Ranga Shankara on Sunday. The students of the 2024-25 batch from Rangayana’s training institute, Bharatiya Rangashikshana Kendra, will perform in the play.
Karnad’s play is based on the myth of Yavakri from the ‘Mahabharata’. Yavakri is sage Bharadwaja’s son. His story is narrated to the Pandavas by sage Lomasha when they stop by Raibhya’s hermitage on the banks of river Ganga during their exile.
Paravasu, Aravasu, Raibhya, Nittilai and Vishakha are the other important characters in the play.
In his plays, Karnad is known to take threads from mythology to discuss present-day socio-politics. In ‘Agni Mattu Male’, he discusses gender roles — how women are treated in traditional patriarchal societies. “Although the play doesn’t say anything directly, I believe it is a stark portrayal of honour killing in present-day society,” director Salian Umesh Narayan tells Metrolife.
“The play also poses questions like what does knowledge mean? Knowledge should bring empathy and tolerance and not arrogance in a person,” he adds.
A drama troupe is presented as a character in the play. Rangayana’s adaptation will see Karnad’s play from the drama troupe’s lens.
“At times, when traditional societies considered drama and dance as taboo, nomadic tribes safeguarded the theatre culture by performing in village after village. As a theatre group, we were curious to look at the play from their perspective,” Narayan adds.
H K Dwarakanath is the play’s set designer and the music is by Digvijay Heggodu. There are about 13 characters out of which eight will play the main roles.
Narayan hails from Dakshina Kannada district and studied theatre at Ninasam. He has been working as an acting instructor at multiple institutions including Rangayana and Ninasam. Some of the notable plays he has directed include ‘Chandrahasa Sahebaru Baruttare’, ‘Postbox No 9’, ‘Oedipus-Antigone’, ‘I Dream Before I Take the Stand’ and ‘Macbeth’ among others.
‘Agni Mattu Male’ on January 5, 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm at Ranga Shankara, J P Nagar. Tickets online.