When Don Quixote met Alice in Wonderland
When Don Quixote met Alice in Wonderland
Two masterpieces of English literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Cervante's Don Quixote, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha will be shown in Mumbai. Titled Wonderland -The Alice And Don Quixote Story, the play is meant for children, and had been conceived and directed by Bijon Mondal along with production group Ranga Theatre.
The Queen of Manhattan is spreading terror through Wonderland, and isn't providing residents with food and money. Alice, who refuses to go down the rabbit hole, is convinced by the rabbit who assures her that the adventure, this time, will be very different. Meanwhile Don Quixote, who is on a mission to save an imaginary princess, accidentally falls down the rabbit hole. The queen captures Alice, and the Mad Hatter comes up with a plan involving Don Quixote, to save Alice instead.
According to Mondal, no two literary characters could have been better fodder for theatre than Alice and Don Quixote. "Alice dreams and visits this wonderful land, while Don Quixote has daydreams of grandeur and faraway princess," he says. "It's only once you chase your dreams that you really follow yourself."
At: 11 am, Prithvi Theatre
Call: 26149546
Best of 7x3=21
AFTER the popular Gujarati play Saat Tari Ekvees or 7x3=21 and its sequel 7x3=21 ufffd Part 2, Manhar Gadhia Production is back with Best of 7x3=21. This one is a selection of monologues from the earlieru00a0 plays.
Gadhia, founder of the production house says, "The idea is to keep changing the bunch of monologues in order to get a different flavour for our plays each time."
The monologues that make it to part 3 include one by a surrogate mother who questions the boundaries of her role, and wonders whether she is as much of a mother, as the biological one, whose child she is carrying.
Another monologue is of a young woman whose career is successful, but love life, bumpy. One monologue is the cry of an unwritten poem dreaming to be written.
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At: 5 pm and 8 pm, Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
Why does a terrorist want to dance in a reality television show?
In an unusual play titled One On One, 12 leading playwrights of Mumbai have written short monologues, and in some cases, duologues exploring contemporary India. Themes dealt with include Ajmal Kasab's trial, the red tapeism of the Indian bureaucracy, the popularity of reality TV shows, and the legalisation of homosexuality.
Characters range from an irate airline passenger to a migrant worker, and a terrorist who comes to India with Kasab to participate in a dance reality show.
Actors Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel, and director Rahul da Cunha of Rage Productions conceived the idea of holding short monologues within one play. While many of these are laced with humour, some ask disturbing questions. None is too frivolous or too serious, says da Cunha. "The audience will feel like they are watching television, with 10 channels on at the same time," he smiles.
At: 7.30 pm & 9.30 pm, Experimental Theatre, NCPA,
CALL: 66223737