Theatre Marina’s Thiruarangan - an absorbing blend of history and fiction

City-based Theatre Marina seemed to have timed their next production to perfection. Thiruarangan, their fifth play overall, is set across three timelines, one of them which happens to be set in contemporary Russia. To be staged on Sunday, the day of the FIFA World Cup final in Russia, Thiruarangan has a 20-member strong cast, with a script written by Jayaraman Ragunathan, one of the core members of the Theatre Marina. 

“I wrote this script in Tamil around four years ago, around the time when the group was formed,” he says, sharing that the play debuted at the Mylapore Fine Arts Club this January. Open to all ages, the Tamil play is high on historical references and tries to forge a connection between two different eras, including the one that sees characters from ancient Russia, like the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and Count Grigory Orlov. 

R Giritharan, the director of the play, also plays the protagonist, Ramanujan, who voluntarily applies for the post of the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Indian Embassy in Russia in the present day, with an ulterior motive in mind. The clues to what the motive is lies in the other two timelines, 1747 and 1770, all of which will be acted out simultaneously during the course of the play. 

“The core of the storyline revolves around the Orlov diamond, and the legend that a French soldier stole it from a temple in Srirangam during the Carnatic Wars of the 18th century. After centuries of being passed over, including between Catherine and Orlov, the stone now lies safe in the Kremlin,” says Ragunathan, adding that there are fictitious portions in the story that have been added in the play, including the climax. 

With costumes that depict each of the eras to the T, the play also features songs sung by Anuradha Sriram and Giritharan, and choreography by Latha Ravi. There a few debutantes in the cast as well. Even as entries are coming in for the show, Raghunathan says that he has just finished writing the script for Theatre Marina’s next play, titled December 17. Till then it’s all Russia. 

At Mylapore Fine Arts Club. July 15. 7 pm to 8.30 pm.