JOIN USIt is time for yet another season of ‘Deccan Herald Theatre Festival’ and this year’s line-up has an interesting mix of plays of different genres.
The festival is spread over two weekends. It will be held from January 31 to February 2 and on February 8 and February 9 at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. The play will start at 7.30 pm and the audience needs to be seated by 7.15 pm.
The plays are based on a wide range of subjects and themes. ‘The Train Driver’, a play written by Athol Fugard and directed by Anik Ghosh, will kickstart the festival on January 31. It will be performed by the group Gnatak. On February 1, Shakespearean play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, directed by Nandini Rao, will be staged. It is being performed by Yours Truly Theatre. ‘Public Property’, a play written by Sam Peter Jackson and directed by Prakash Belawadi, will be held on February 2. It is performed by the Suchitra Centre for Film and Drama.
On February 8, ‘The Retreating World/Last Tuesday’, written by Naomi Wallace and Donald, and directed by Kirtana Kumar will be staged. It will be performed by the Little Jasmine Theatre Project. The final day (February 9) will feature ‘The Threepenny Opera’, a play written by Bertolt Brecht, and directed by Ashish Sen. It will be
performed by the group, ‘Play Pen’.
‘The Train Driver’ by Athol Fugard was inspired by the true story of a mother, who with her three small children, committed suicide on the train tracks outside Cape Town, South Africa.
Anik Ghosh, the director of the play, says that he has an old association with the festival and has specially come down to the City to participate in it. “It is a very intense play and will hold the attention of the audience. I think the festival provides an excellent platform to theatre lovers,” he notes. ‘Public Property’, a play directed by Prakash Belawadi, is a ruthless and somewhat riotous critique of celebrity and celebrity-making, hypocrisy and gender morality. Prakash says that though the play has its funny moments, the plot revolves around the sleaze that the public wants to see and how the media provides that. “It is an intense play and a difficult one as well. The theatre festival is a great effort and I have been a part of it for many years now,” he says.
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, directed by Nandini Rao, is an entangled love tale with all the possible twists and turns.
The play deals with the universal theme of love and its complications, pursuing true love, disappointment, mistaking infatuation for love, rejections/dejection, getting trapped, falling for a donkey and selling one’s soul to the devil etc.
Director Nandini Rao says that she is looking forward to the festival and wants to see how the audience reacts to her play.
The tickets for the plays are available at the Deccan Herald office on MG Road and at www.indianstage.in. For details, call 25880147 and 25880141.