Bengaluru: Honnaru Rangotsava theatre festival to mark 50 years of six theatre troupes

Six prominent theatre troupes — Rangasampada, Samudaya, Kala Gangotri, Spandana, Nataranga and Benaka — will celebrate over 50 years of their contribution to Kannada theatre. They will stage six plays at the Honnaru Rangotsava theatre festival, which begins on Saturday.

Established in the 1970s, these groups have made groundbreaking plays like ‘Tughlaq’ (Nataranga), ‘Belchi’ (Samudaya), ‘Lakshapathi Rajana Kathe’ (Spandana), ‘Pampa Bharatha’ (Samudaya), ‘Sattavara Neralu’ (Benaka), ‘Mukhyamantri’ (Kala Gangotri) and ‘Odalala’ (Rangasampada), among others. On the first day of the festival, Rangasampada will present ‘Sharmishte’, a one-woman play featuring noted actor and politician Umashree. The play is written by Belur Raghunandan and directed by P Chidambara Rao Jambe.

On the following days, Samudaya will stage ‘Bhagavantana Saavu’, an adaptation of K R Meera’s Malayalam story, directed by Samkutty Pattomkary, and Nataranga will present K Y Narayanaswamy’s
‘Neeragannadi’, directed by B Suresha. Kala Gangotri will stage Harish Athreya’s ‘Moneye Devaru’, directed by B V Rajaram, while Spandana will perform H S Venkateshmurthy’s ‘Hagalu Kanasu’, directed by B Jayashree. The festival will conclude with Benaka presenting B V Karanth’s ‘Jokumaraswamy’, directed by T S Nagabharana.

The event is being organised by noted theatre personality Srinivas G Kappanna, with Umashree serving as advisor. According to a press statement, it is being held without any government funding or support from any academy.

From February 21 to 26, 6.30 pm, at Ravindra Kalakshetra, J C Road. Tickets online.