A play of human emotions, well-portrayed and well-presented at Theatre Olympics

Of all the plays at the Theatre Olympics, organised by the NSD, the two outstanding ones were Blood Wedding and Jaana Tha Roshanpura.

Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca, translated from the original into colloquial Konkani for the Theatre Olympics was presented by Rangmell Kala Academy, Goa, under the direction of Vishnupad Barve, an NSD alumni.

Blood Wedding exposes the artificial system of culture and civilisation and speaks about how the natural rights of an individual are violated by the system. This violation leads to setting up of an individual society where violence rules.

Leonardo, played by Casiano Eddie D’Souza, is a married man. He escapes from his family and summons his beloved, the bride played by Mamata Pednekar, who is also madly in love with Leonardo. Together they decide to run away as they are unable to follow the societal norms because their nature and desires will not allow them to do otherwise.

The play is influenced by Goan Maand culture arena structure of performance space and performer-character-gender aesthetic. The design is inspired by Kinesthetic value of Goan carnival and shigmo culture. The play has been adapted by Dr. Prakash Vazrikar and presented by the Repertory Company of Kala Academy Goa, established in 1992. Despite being in a foreign language which most in the audience did not understand, we could follow its story, a familiar tale. In the original play the moon is a special character, which was not so in this version. The lover’s flight was very well depicted as were the chasing people from society. Muppets used in the play represented the society, were cleverly deployed.

Jaana Tha Roshanpura is written by Samta Sagar and directed by Virendra Saxena, who also plays the main role, that of an old man, Ishwar Prasad Avasthi. Awasthi has been living with his son-in-law, Chandan Srivastava, in the same house for a year.

The reason behind staying together is Ishwar’s daughter, Panja, who died of cancer. Before leaving this world she took a promise from both the men, separately, that they will live together. Despite their differences in behaviour and attitude towards life they managed somehow to live together for a year. After a year, following a fight, Chandan leaves the house.

However, he returns to the house when he comes to know that Ishwar is ailing. It is then that Ishwar finds a son in Chandan, and Chandan, who has never had cordial relations with his own father, finds a father in Ishwar. Virendra Saxena was his usual sensitive self in his performance as an old man and Ravi Mahashabde who played Chandan tried his best to come up to the mark set by Virendra.

It was a play which is old fashioned in its content but quite contemporary in its realisation. The two men have a good relationship throughout the length of the play. The play was in Hindi and was presented by Qissago, Mumbai.

Kavita Nagpal is a theatre personality and a well-known critic