New plays to add fresh flavour to theatre menu

The drums are rolling and the stage is set as Mumbai welcomes eight new plays, part of three theatre festivals starting this week.

The drums are rolling and the stage is set as Mumbai welcomes eight new plays, part of three theatre festivals starting this week.

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Delhi-based Jan Natya Manch’s Sarkash and Atelier’s Youth Theatre Week along with Mumbai-based Thespo started on Sunday. The new plays across festivals hope to add fresh flavour to the content and techniques of theatre in the city.

During Sarkash Jan Natya Manch, Char Rang, a play inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s novel Chaturang, will premiere on Tuesday. Based in contemporary Delhi it explores the debate between belief and science and the social constraints binding women. “These themes addressed in Tagore’s novel are relevant to this day,” said Sudhanva Deshpande, director. “We wanted to do something inspired by his work for long and seized the opportunity in his 150th birth anniversary year.”

Audiences can look forward to unique style of expression such as puppets enacting some key scenes in the play and live paint animation in the background.

“While keeping the play modern, we wanted to bring in traditional characters from Tagore’s novel thus the experiment with puppets,” said Deshpande, “ through the paint we want to find an expression of emotion beyond actors.”

For Sarkash, hosted by Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, famous theatre personalities such as Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah will perform their well-known plays pro bono and collections from the plays will go towards creating a space dedicated to theatre in Delhi.

Atelier’s Youth Theatre Week at the Sophia Bhabha Auditorium in Breach Candy will stage ‘I am not Edith Piaf’ by Russian youth group, Theatre of Young Spectator, for the first time in India on Tuesday. The play is based on the confessions of French singer Edith Piaf. Atelier’s four-year-old festival showcasing college theatre in Delhi, has come to Mumbai for the first time after exploring the scope for campus theatre in the city.

Within the space of youth theatre, Thespo, which turns 12 this year, brings four new plays and five new short platform performances by youth across the country.

“This year all the pieces are new writing which shows that young people have something new to say,” said Quasar Thakore Padamsee, one of the founders of Thespo.

Apart from these, Thespo Fringe, introduced this year, has five performances that will take place in a room without elaborate lights and sets.