03 November,2009 09:15 AM IST | | FYI Team
FYI speaks to three theatre groups who might be based in smaller towns but have made a big enough impression for Prithvi Theatre Festival to dedicate an entire season to their endeavour
Adishakti
Based in: Puducherry
USP: The all-in-one group is into theatre, music, dance and shadow puppetry, etc Plays to watch out for: The Hare and The Tortoise (November 17, Prithvi Theatre), Ganapati (November 18, Prithvi Theatre), Impressions of Bhima (November 19, Prithvi Theatre), Rhinoceros (November 20, Prithvi Theatre)
The full name of this group is Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research. Just like in a laboratory buzzing with scientists working on breakthrough research, the group is perpetually on the look out for new art forms and experimenting with hybrid performing arts.
The group draws from its surroundings; especially the multi-layered history and people from various ethnicities that let the group have a larger worldview.
The managing trustee of the group, Veenapani Chawla, believes her group is different from others in the country because its members are not restricted to any one kind of artistic activity.
Each member is capable of taking on the task of an actor, dancer, musician or a puppeteer. Re-interpreting texts and accepted notions is one common trait of their plays, evident in The Hare and The Tortoise, Ganapati and Impressions of Bhima.
Their latest work, Rhinoceros, is an absurdist play written by Eugu00e8ne Ionesco. Apart from theatre, the Adishakti campus is also famous for the medicinal herb gardens, planted in consultations with medicinal practitioners from alternative streams of treatment.
Nirman Kala Manch
Based in: Patna, Bihar
USP: The group is known most for the revival of local Bhojpuri theatre Plays to watch out for: Neelkanth Nirala (November 10, Prithvi Theatre), Harsingar (November 11, Prithvi Theatre), Kahan Gaye Mere Ugna (November 12, Prithvi Theatre), Bidesia (November 13, Karnataka Sangha), Dharti Aaba (November 15, Horniman Circle Garden).
Like most other students from National School of Drama, Sanjay Upadhyay too could have tried his luck in good ol' Bollywood, but he chose to return to his home in Patna and set up Nirman Kala Manch, with three friends in 1988.
Two years later, they performed Bidesia, a play about a woman who is determined to get her errant husband back after he has an affair with another woman while working in Kolkata.
The play is based on a folk song Bidesia, popular in the Bhojpuri region, but frowned upon by the socially upward. The play has performed nearly 500 shows in the past 20 years.
Apart from Bidesia, other popular plays by the group are Neelkanth Nirala, Harsingar, Kahan Gaye Mere Ugna and Dharti Aaba. Each of the plays deal with local socio-political themes.
Ninasam/Ninasam Tirugata
Based in: Heggodu, Karnataka
USP: Theatre group of the people, by the people, for the people
Plays to watch out for: Vennisina Vyaapaara (November 12, Karnataka Sangha, November 15, Prithvi Theatre), Aakaashbheri (November 13, Horniman Circle Garden, November 15, Prithvi Theatre), Aakaashbutti (November 14, Karnataka Sangha), Yakshagana: Vidyunmati Kalyaana (November 15, Prithvi Theatre).
From performing Yakshagana, the folk dance-drama form from coastal Karnataka to a Kannada version of Merchant of Venice in Vennisina Vyaapaara, these two sister-groups don't consider anything a challenge.
Neelakanteshwara Natya Sangha better known as Ninasam is a theatre collective formed by Magasaysay Award winner KV Subbanna, and is now run by his son KV Akshara.
The group was essentially formed as a response to the villagers' need for entertainment.
Over the last 60 years, it has grown from strength to strength with an auditorium, film society, theatre institute and many courses all in a tiny village.
While Ninasam is the core theatre group comprising villagers around Heggodu, Ninasam Tirugata is the travelling theatre repertory.
Both groups work on diverse scripts. Ninasam's Aakaashabutti explores life in the harsh metropolis of Mumbai through three short stories of common people trying to make a life in the big city.
Yakshagana: Vidyunmati Kalyaana by the same group tells the love story of Devendra's son Jayanta and Vidyunmati, the daughter of Gandharva king Sulochana, through the folk art form.
Ninasam Tirugata's play Aakaashbheri is a Kannada adaptation of the Hindi play Gagan Damama Bajau, which is based on the nationalist movement led by Bhagat Singh.
