The 19th edition of the six-day Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival 2022 will witness six curated plays in Tamil, Kannada, English and Hindi.
Published Nov 01, 2022 | 4:30 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 02, 2022 | 8:54 PM
A still from the play '1984', directed by Happy Ranajit. (Supplied)
Ranga Shankara is back with its annual theatre festival. The event will be held completely offline this time from Tuesday, 1 November.
This is the 19th edition of the theatre festival. With theatre getting back to how it was, and with actors and audiences getting to enjoy the art form in its truest and long-known form – in the physical space – six plays have been thoughtfully curated under the theme of “Just Theatre”.
Arundhati Nag, a prominent theatre personality and Artistic Director of Ranga Shankara told South First that the theme and the plays were selected very organically.
“We did 18 festivals so far with varied themes like tragedy, Shakespeare, youth, etc. This year, we decided to go with ‘Just Theatre’. We found a good representation.”
“We also found that this theme allows us to have a variety of plays. Just Theatre explores the different meanings embedded in the word ‘just’. It could be just theatre, it could be justice or the presence or absence of justice,” she explains.
Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival 2022 schedule. (Supplied)
On 1 November, which also happens to be Kannada Rajyotsava (when Karnataka State was formed), the festival will start with a poetry session by Mamta Sagar and Prathibha Nandakumar.
“They are prominent female poets in Kannada literature who curated poems of young poets, reading their voice, talking about justice, and talking about the myriad meanings that emerge from the word.”
1 November: The opening play, Dakla Katha Devi Kavya, is directed by Laksmana KP, an important member of the Dalit community.
It is based loosely on a lot of poems written by the Dalit community, their mythologies and their take on what is fair and what is good.
2 November: There is Something in the Water, by Akvarious Production, Mumbai, is a play based on Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”.
It has been adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana. Adapted to Mumbai today, it is an edifice of garbage dumps and the politics around it.
3 November: Taking Sides by The Theatre Company, Mumbai, is inspired by Ronald Harwood’s book and is written and directed by Atul Kumar.
“This play raises some important questions. Should art be created mindlessly or should it be concerned about who is consuming them? These are the questions we theatre-makers need to be very mindful of. Whom are you performing for? The idea or the ideology?” points out Arundhati.
A still from ‘Apne Ghar Jaisa’. (Supplied)
4 November: Idakini Kathaiaratham is a Tamil play written and directed by Murugabhoopathy S.
It is about being disenfranchised, not having an agency of ownership, and becoming a migrant, and a faceless person in our country.
5 November: 1984 is a play inspired by George Orwell’s novel with the same title. It’s written and directed by Happy Ranajit.
“1984 is being performed by a bunch of youngsters from Delhi. George Orwell’s novel shook us up with the maxim: ‘Big Brother is watching you’. It pans out today with the UID and with everyone knowing what you are eating or where you are,” adds Arundhati.
6 November: Apne Ghar Jaisa is an in-house production of Ranga Shankara, written and directed by Anmol Vellani.
“It’s been a long time since we made a Hindi play from Ranga Shankara. This play questions the status quo in which a lot of the middle class is stuck.”
“You don’t know what ideology they are believing in deep within without them even knowing it. Whose side do they take? And what comes naturally, not because of any propaganda, but what is there. Who are we as people? It’s very important to showcase the idea,” points out Arundhati.
Anmol Vellani, director of Apne Ghar Jaisa, told South First that the play is about treating people without prejudice, treating them equally and what they represent to you.
“That is what we are losing in society. Our prejudice becomes a reason for treating people a certain way rather than treating them as human beings and keeping them at par with everyone else.”
On 5 and 6 November, there will be a reading by actor-director Ratna Pathak Shah of Parables of the Present. On 6 November, there will be 20-minute performances by college students.
“We also have 10 students from a liberal arts college coming in as observers. One school is also presenting different characters in literature who have been branded as unjust like Shylock. What is a society that gives birth to a Shylock?” informs Arundhati.
‘Idakini Kathaiaratham’ is a Tamil play written and directed by Murugabhoopathy S. (Supplied)
About the theatre scene in the city and the country, and how the artists have been sustaining themselves, Arundhati says, “Theatre is alive in India, so beautifully, in so many different languages, and within an amateur community that is not earning its livelihood from it.”
Every participant in the event is earning somewhere else. They are either doing voiceovers, OTT, or corporate jobs.
“Ranga Shankara is the proof that theatre exists and even today we charge only ₹2,500 (for hiring the space) and our festival tickets are Rs ₹250. How do we survive without a sponsor? It’s difficult to find one,” she avers.
“The festival is a gift to the city, of plays that would otherwise not come, or be invited. For example, Murugabhoopathy is not going to be invited by a popular festival done by a corporate.”
“Everybody has changed in these two years. It’s a lot of time to process. We are people who survive against all odds. It is a choice as well as a challenge. And of course, there is a price,” Arundhati says.
“Urban Indian theatre has lifted its head. Because anyway all those people had jobs or they got jobs in the last six months and theatre is what keeps them going so they have come back.”
Ranga Shankara has been booked every day since the lockdown was lifted. “It will take some time for all of us to get better. Every impact on mankind must have some effect, every holocaust has a fallout which comes to the surface after five years.”
“We will be able to revisit these tea leaves in the cup only after five years. Then you will have people say, ‘you are a pandemic generation’,” Arundhati signs off.
