JOIN USThe ‘Deccan Herald Theatre Festival’ will be held from March 12 to March 17 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, from 7.30 pm. Several interesting plays will be presented during the festival. Afsana (comedy) by Theatre Club will be staged on March 12.
This play is directed by Abhijit Sengupta. It is hilarious at one level but on a serious plane, it tears into the Western mindset about non-white people, where the colour of one’s skin and a name can conjure up prejudice. On March 13, ‘The Maids’ (drama) by Jean Genet will be presented. Staged by Theatre Nisha, it is directed by V Balakrishnan. Genet loosely based his play on the infamous Papin sisters, Lea and Christine, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933, although the play is not the story of the Papin sisters as such.
‘True West’ (drama) by Gnatak and directed by Prakash Aswani, will be staged on March 14. In ‘True West’, all nine scenes take place on the same set — a kitchen and the adjoining alcove of a home in a southern California suburb. In this dark play of duality, Sam Shepard takes a long, hard look at America. March 15 will see the comedy, ‘The Bald Soprano’, directed by Kirtana Kumar and performed by Little Jasmine. ‘The Bald Soprano’ by Eugene Ionesco is apparently in the ‘Absurd Theatre’ tradition. It follows a three-act structure. Set quite clearly in ‘an English room’ and speaking English, the actors are disturbed by a wildly chiming clock.
‘When did you last see your trousers?’ (comedy) presented by Theatre Lab and directed by Bimal Desai will be staged on March 16. It is a farce that begins quietly enough with Howard and Penny asleep in bed, when a burglar climbs through the window and proceeds to steal various items, including Howard’s suit. The play has all the ingredients of a night of outrageous fun.
On March 17, Play Pen will perform ‘The Open Couple’, a comedy, directed by Ashish Sen. ‘The Open Couple’ by Dario Fo and Franca Rame is a proverbial story of a couple married for more than 10 years. Wrapped within the garb of a political comedy, it takes a hilarious albeit furious look at that age-old issue: the battle of the sexes. Tickets for the plays are available at the Deccan Herald offices between 10 am to 4 pm — No 75, M G Road (Ph: 25880164/141); 43/1, Ranga Rao Road, Behind SLV Hotel, Shankarapuram (Ph: 25880208); Maruthi Complex, 1st floor, BEML Circle, New Tippasandra (Ph: 25880206/213); 73Y/57, 14th main, 50th cross, 3rd block, Rajajinagar (Ph: 25880210); No 1, 1st main, Ganganagar (Ph: 25880227).