This November, Ranga Shankara hosts the 19th edition of its annual festival — The Ranga Shankara
Theatre Festival. The six-day festival will feature a vivid range of plays spanning adaptations of Ronald Harwood and George Orwell’s works to original scripts by Jangama Collective and Manalmagudi Theatre Land.
Productions being featured at the festival this year align with the theme ‘Just theatre.’ Elaborating on the same, artiste and artistic advisor, Arundhati Nag says, “The theme asks the audience to think. This festival is not about passive consumption of whatever is thrown at you, reminding our audiences, society
and ourselves that the ‘just’ choice is yours to make.”
The festival opens on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava with Mamta Sagar and Prathibha Nandakumar’s poetry session, Idhu Keluva Samaya. Based around the central theme of ‘justice,’ the session will witness both the prominent poets reading out their poetry that revolves around the presence and lack of justice in our daily lives.
One of the interesting plays listed on the festival line-up is Taking Sides, a production by The Company Theatre. It is an adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s 1995 play of the same name. Set in the post World War II era, the plot revolves around the denazification trial of the German symphonic conductor and composer, Wilhelm Furtwängler. Talking about what prompted him to stage this play, director, Atul Kumar, says, “Ever since I had seen Hungarian filmmaker István Szabó’s film based on this play, I wanted to pick it up. I got the chance to revisit the script in the pandemic and decided to bring it to the stage. We performthis play in traverse, which means the audience will witness two sides of the narrative and different perspectives as well.”
Some of the other plays to look forward to at the festival are Dakla Katha Devi Kavya by Jangama Collective (an adaptation of several texts of the poet KB Siddaiah, whose writings suggest how popular culture and mythologies diversify our country), There Is Something In The Water by Akvarious Productions (a play based on Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People), and Idakini Kathaiaratham by Manalmagudi Theatre Land (the production depicts how a human body becomes easy to destroy when disconnected from its motherland). Besides the plays, the festival will also offer a workshop, a reading by Ratna Patakh Shah and several 20-minute short plays and street plays.
Rs 250. November 1 to 6, 4 pm. At J P Nagar
srushti@newindianexpress.com
@Sru_Kulkarni