:: Culture Plus

Act: 31, Scene 1,Venue: Prithvi Theatre

Lakshmi Govindrajan

There are two strains of the Indian theatrical tradition, which in my opinion, are indispensable for imparting the right kind of acting discipline to any serious group of actors. They come from the folk theatre and the Sanskrit drama. Indeed they complement one another. It is through this blend that I am seeking to get a modern theatre – how successfully, the audience alone will know."

—Habib Tanvir

Prithvi Theatre does what it does best — bring the best of theatre in a unified platform called the Prithvi Theatre Festival. And this year, they’ve looked homewards to showcase India’s beautiful and rich plurality. Three groups with decades of experience and fascinating theatre practice will be offering some of their best works — Adishakti, Ninasam and Nirman Kala Manch. To give them company are four new productions by younger directors. If that’s not all, Prithvi this year pays a tribute to the legendary Habib Tanvir who passed away this year. "Nothing but the best, no? We’re opening the festival with his signature play Charandas Chor. The Horniman Circle will have an exhibition on him and his theatre, something we had done earlier in 2004. As a mark of our gratitude towards senior actors of the Naya Theatre, we’ll also be raising funds for them," said an excited Sanjana Kapoor, director of the festival and Prithvi Theatre itself. The festival will be on from November 7 to 20.

With a country that speaks of such cultural diversity like ours, there is no doubt that showcasing the best of Indian theatre would see productions in various languages. The festival will see plays in English, Kannada, Hindi, Chhatisgarhi, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and even Japanese with English subtitles! Adishakti’s Veenapani Chawla says: "I see Adishakti trying to achieve an aesthetic pluralism through its work – a reflection of the pluralism of the contemporary world, it’s multiple sightedness. The contemporary mind can take in more viewpoints than one — even contemporary ones – at the same time."

And if you think that Indianness is all that will rule at the festival, think again. Adhishakti intends to give its unique twist to Absurdist writer Eugene Ionesco’s classic Rhinoceros, when the play headlines the festival. The play explores themes of conformity, culture, philosophy and morality – increasingly relevant issues in today’s changing socio-political landscape. Sridhar/Thayil will also bring a dark Indian twist to the highly Western opera with Opera Noir — a lyrical conversation between a ghost and a soprano abot God, murder and showbiz.

"The operatic elements of love, betrayal and murder are elements of noir too. But we also mean ‘noir’ in the sense of ‘black’. Opera has become a white, upper class form of entertainment, of excluding much of the world. This is the opposite. It’s for everyone," says Jeet Thayil of Sridhar/Thayil.

Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act as the springboard from which young actors revisit William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Amitesh Grover’s The Hamlet Quarter. Grover adds, "I am not a video artist, I merely build upon my scant understanding of media and media/video art to create multiple media performances."

While international classics may get Indian twists, absolutely nothing matches a thorough-bred Indian performance. And that quotient is added by Ninasam’s Yakshagana: Vidyunmati Kalyaana. The performance is based on a traditional prasanga by Halasinahalli Narasimha Shetty. Ninasam’s K.V. Subbanna sums up the festival’s endeavour best by citing his own company’s attitude towards Indian theatre.

He says, "Ninasam is a civilisation, a struggle of a community to find a new way... a cultural alternative, a democratic decentralisation."