Kuvempu’s magnum opus returns to stage after 2 yrs

After a two-year break, Kuvempu’s magnum opus ‘Malegalalli Madumagalu’ will be delighting thousands of fans, with a 75-member team from the National School of Drama, Bengaluru, set to stage it from January 20 onwards.

The nine-hour play performed throughout the night will be staged at Kalagrama next to Bangalore University’s Jnanabharathi campus.

The fifth edition of the play’s stage adaptation will begin at 8.30 pm, while curtains will fall the next morning at 6.30 am. The play was last performed in the city in January 2018, before which it was staged both in Bengaluru and Mysuru.

The novel was adapted to stage by poet Prof K Y Narayanaswamy and directed by NSD-Bengaluru’s regional head C Basavalingaiah in association with the state Department of Kannada and Culture.

While Hamsalekha scores the music, art director Shashidhar Adapa is recreating the Malnad region on stage.

The play will be staged four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

“We’re requesting the chief minister’s presence for the inaugural show and we’re planning to start the play on January 20,” said Basavalingaiah.

Organisers are also aiming to complete the 100th staging of the play. “So far, we’ve done 85 shows and have plans to do the 100th staging this time,” he added.

The team had planned to stage the play in Kuvempu’s birthplace — Kuppalli in Shivamogga district — but it could not do in 2019 for technical and financial reasons. The team first staged the nine-hour-long play in Mysuru in 2010.

A 750-page fiction, ‘Malegalalli Madumagalu’ (meaning the bride in the mountains) portrays the clash of tradition and modernity and how the individual is pitted against society.