It’s probably for the first time in seven years, since the Short + Sweet Theatre Festival was held in Chennai for the first time, that the number of selected entries have decreased from the previous edition. But there is a good reason to that, says festival director Meera Krishnan, as her team at Prakriti Foundation gears up to host the latest edition of the festival that starts this week. “Last year, there were many who observed that the plays staged on the weekdays drew lesser audiences than the ones on weekends. Therefore, this year, we shortlisted 60 plays, 10 less than last year, so that it will be easier to squeeze them into a schedule that favours all,” Meera says.
One for the wildcards
The Short + Sweet Festival is an international event that has theatre directors sign up every year to present plays that are as just 10 minutes in duration. Out of the 60 plays shortlisted this year, 30 of them are wildcard entries, which include original scripts or adaptations from earlier editions that did not make the cut for the final round. They will be screened in the final three weeks, on weekends. “Each of the directors of the wildcard entries will be mentored by experts and will conduct two rehearsals before the final round of screenings,” says Meera. Included among the wildcards are plays like The Right Moment (Aravinda Bharathi S, Iyal Theatre Company), Nattarau (Icarr Weeoui, Shree Thaayar Kalai Koodam) and Bimbangal (Ashish Madineni, C2C Creations), which will kickstart each of the three wildcard weekends. They will be followed by other plays like The Awkward Surprise (Aditya Kajwe, The Stage Roaches), A Womb With A View (Prince Abraham), and others.
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Mime & mythology
Starting with Charles Britto’s Sensorium, the rest of the primary line-up includes majority of Tamil plays, followed by others in English. “Compared to last year, there are around five plays based on movement, like mime for instance. There is also a unique play designed like a therukoothu, an ancient form of Tamil street theatre,” says Meera, while referring to Dhuriyan Padugalam, directed by Sarathy Krishnan of Mugamoodigal. There are also plays that are relevant to current world affairs. Namely, Maraivan Thodakkam by Shiva of Neithal, which is a monologue of a refugee. There’s also Shabdhangal-Aththiyaayam:10 — written by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and directed by Shanti Venkatesh of Alagammai Theatres — which is of an ex-Army man visiting Vaikom at his residence and narrating his story. As for mythology, Meera tells us to look out for Phaedra by Shakthi Ramani and Draupadi by Aathif from Naveena Koothupattarai.
Finals from July 27-29. At Alliance Française of Madras.