Sri Lankan theatre troupe to set new trend at 6th ITFoK

Thrissur: Mobile theatre might not be a wonder for Keralites, as they are familiar with art forms like koothu. However, the moving theatre of Janakarliya from Sri Lanka is bound to be a crowd puller at the sixth edition of the International Theatre Festival (ITFoK) to be held here from 27th of January.

Janakaraliya is a theatre group in Sri Lanka that promotes grassroots level peace and reconciliation between communities divided along ethnic, social and religious lines. Describing the activities of Janakarliya, Paramkarma Niriella, founder of the moving theatre, says: The uniqueness of our ‘theatre arrangement’ is that we have a huge tent that can accommodate thousands of theatre lovers at a given time. “We call the stage in Sinhala as “Ranga Madala, ‘karaliya’ or ‘Vedikawa”. In Europe, people call it ‘stage’. Stage dramas should go down to the ordinary people.

Now, we offer it in a more attractive way than what it was earlier”, he adds. The 18-member team of Janakarliya has already started working on the mobile theatre in front of the indoor stadium, here. They shipped the whole material from the island country with financial support from the India- Sri Lanka Foundation.

After performing ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, a play based on German playwright Bertolt Brecht, on the fourth day of the festival, the mobile theatre will leave for  other performances. “We are not just inviting a team from abroad. We are inviting a new theatre space this time”, says V. Sasikumar, coordinator of the festival.