When actors 'performed' poetry

At the Bengaluru Poetry Festival, city-based Kannada poet Prathibha Nandakumar showed the audience that there are more ways to enjoy poetry than just reciting them out loud.

Poetry lovers got a chance to immerse themselves in verse. Prathibha and her group staged a unique ‘performance poetry play’ titled ‘Ondu Lessu Ondu Plussu’.

The performance was based on Prathibha’s book of poems titled ‘Coffee House’. She played the role of a narrator, reading out lines as characters went in and out of the play. The poems revolve around cafes where artists, lovers, lawyers and a variety of people interact. It was an immersing experience for audience since actors played their part as they walked among the viewers off stage.

“Kannada poems can be presented in different ways and this experiment is my attempt to prove this. The first presentation was staged in a coffee house and this is only the second performance. There are poets from different languages at the fest and through the play I wanted them to experience Kannada poetry,” Prathibha said.

The second day of the festival organised by Atta Galatta had representation across genres and languages. Journalist and poet Jerry Pinto regaled the audience with his verses about his frustration with poems. “The functions of audience are to clap with energy, laugh without irony, be there at the beginning and be alive at the end,” Pinto recited. 

Kashmiri poet Ayaz Rasool Nazki  and Tibetan poet Tsering Wangmo Dhompa talked about what ‘home’ meant to each of them, through their poems. “I was born in India to parents who fled from Tibet. For me, home was always imminent because my family talked about going back to our country one day. But it never happened,” Tsering said.

Subodh Sankar, co-founder of festival organiser Atta Galatta, said over 2,500 people participated in the second edition. “We have had a phenomenal response. Gulzar was the biggest crowd-puller and over 800 people came for his session on Saturday. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s session had over 600 people,” he said.