bengali drama Ghoom Nei To be staged at Kamani Auditorium as part of Meta Theater Fest. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
This week, the Kamani Auditorium came alive with four plays that won the 15th Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards for 2020 but could not be staged due to the pandemic. Busting the myth that Hindi and English plays work in the capital circuit, three plays in Bengali, Assamese and Malayalam will be screened.
Directed by Sourav Palodhi, Ghoom Nei revolves around workers living in unsanitary conditions. An adaptation of Utpal Dutt’s famous play of the same name, it comments on the lack of unity among workers in the unorganized sector. “The play has been on stage since the early seventies, but it seems more relevant today as we see the exploitation of delivery boys, cab drivers, who do not have a union.”
Palodhi says that this is an all India problem. When these boys meet with an accident, there is no one to go to them. “They can be sacked from their jobs at any time. ,
, Palodhi has not made any changes in the timeline of the play as he feels that the audience will easily identify the problem. “Truck drivers are sleep deprived because of the nature of their job,” he explains and adds. The pandemic affected the theater form the most. “The online mode does not conform to Art; It needs to be experienced live. With 16 actors on stage at a time and food-eating scenes, our play was most COVID-unfriendly,” he laughs, and hopes to reach out to non-Bengali-speaking audiences through live subtitles.
The Old Man to be staged at Meta Theater Fest in Delhi Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Assamese director Sahidul Haque says language is no barrier for his play old man is more visual than physical. inspired by ernest hemingway the old Man and the Sea, Haque has used brown paper extensively to create his imagery of a Brahmaputra-like river where the old man goes fishing. “I didn’t want to romanticize the river. The water in our rivers looks brown, especially during floods.” ,
The play is about an old man, Wodai, who goes 84 days without a catch, and is the epitome of the worst form of bad luck. Even his young apprentice, Rongmon, is advised to stay away from him. Haq explains, “One day, Wodai goes to the river again and puts up a brave fight with a big fish, which takes his bait.” On its way home, the fish are eaten by crabs and prawns. , Wodai falls into a deep sleep and when he wakes up the next morning, he promises Rongmon in a wave of hope that they will go fishing together again. Haq says that Wodai is the incarnation of his farmer father and the apprentice bears his reflection. “Experiential drama asks you to hold on to hope.”
Based on the novelette by Paul Zakaria, Bhaskar Pattelarum Ente Jeevithavum Thus A Christian migrant laborer from Kerala who is the obedient slave of his aggressive, tyrannical landlord Bhaskar Patelar. Director Suveeran, who adapted it in the 1990s, has recreated the Malayalam play as the literary text allowing “endless scope for development and contemporary interpretation”. He says that class hierarchy continues to strangle society.
, The plays will be staged at Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg from 8th July to 10:70 am)