JOIN USCelebrating the magic of theatre, the ‘Deccan Herald Theatre Festival’ that will be on from February 5 till March 12 at various venues across the City, will feature original and contemporary plays from eminent playwrights. A set of five plays by different groups will be staged on multiple dates throughout the festival at Rangashankara, Jagriti Theatre and Chowdaiah Memorial Hall.
Theatre Lab will present playwright Murray Schisgal’s comedy play ‘Twice around the park’ directed by Bimal Desai. It is a hysterically funny play in two one acts. In the first one, ‘A Need for Brussels Sprouts’ finds a middle-aged actor hoping to land in a TV commercial for pizza by playing opera full blast in his apartment while pretending to the tenor. The irate lady cop who lives upstairs enters and intends to give him a summons for disturbing the peace. They are both lonely and one thing leads to another.
In the second ‘A Need for Expertise’, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks after 26 years have procured a self-help audio tape designed to improve their spiritual awareness, their health and their sex life as a last ditch effort to save their marriage. The play will be staged on February 5, 6, 7 and 13.
‘INVESTIGATION-SBC’, a comedy/suspense production by Sriram Iyer and adapted and directed by Prakash Belawadi, is for audiences 16 years and above. At a routine exit interview on Skype, Raju Cariappa from Bengaluru tells the HR person at the corporate head office in California that the company needs to take care of some things, like the incident that involved his colleagues Sameera Wagle and Victor Johnson. The casual remark results in a full-blown investigation into a case of possible sexual harassment at the workplace- with weird and often hilarious twists and turns until they reach an absurd and ironical conclusion. It will be presented by CFD group on February 12, 13, 14 and 20.
While Gnatak will present ‘The Leader/ Krapp’s Last Tape’ by Eugene Lonesco/ Samuel Beckett directed by Michael Joseph on February 20, 21, 25 and 27.
‘At Home at the Zoo’ is a play by Edward Albee, presented by Jagriti Production and directed by Arundhati Raja. It will be staged on February 26, 27 and 28 and March 5. It revolves around Peter and his wife Ann, a couple enjoying a comfortable marriage in New York, until their lives turn upside down. The play comes with the message that sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.
The last in the series is group PlayPen’s ‘9 Jakhoo Hill’, by Gurcharan Das and directed by Ashish Sen, which will be staged on March 4, 5, 6 and 12. ‘9 Jakhoo Hill’ is set in the Simla of 1962. It explores a number of themes which continue to have as much relevance today as they did in the 60s — changing values, conflicts between old and new, family relationships that come to the surface when skeletons in cupboards begin to tumble out. As love, laughter, loneliness and betrayal confront each other, a moment of truth compels each character to reckon with his/her personal demons and transforms their lives. The tickets for the plays are available at the Deccan Herald office, MG Road between 10 am and 5 pm and also on www.bookmyshow.com.
For details, visit http://www.deccanherald.com/events/dhtheatre/