Ranga, Ranga ‘row’ses of talent

Theatre lovers in the city are in for a treat with the annual Ranga Shankara festival kicking off at the end of the month. With 10 plays to be staged during the course of 10 days, S Surendranath, artistic director of the performing arts space, shares that the theme for the festival is Youth Yuga, with topics that span science fiction, relationships and gender differences — a few told through different genres of Indian folk art.

“The event aims to showcase the future of Indian theatre. All the directors are under 40 and are stars in their own right. They’ll be staging plays based on new ideas or old ideas in a new way, so expect out-of-the-box theatre,” shares Arundhati Nag, founder of Ranga Shankara.

The festival starts off with Dweepa, written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar. Originally in Bangla, the play by Ranga Shankara’s own troupe is in Kannada. The plot revolves around two people who find themselves on a remote island after being blown away by a storm. Having lost their memory, the duo has to rebuild their lives on the isolated island. However, repeated calamities caused by nature sees them starting their lives from scratch every now and then.

Taking on an art form traditionally performed strictly by men, Sharanya Ramprakash seeks to wow audiences in Akshayaambara. Giving the classic Yakshagana production of Draupadi Vastrapharana a twist, Ramprakash essays the role of the Kaurava, while the male artiste plays Draupadi. Really about breaking gender stereotypes, the scenes shift between perception and reality, while questioning tradition, power, gender stereotypes and morality. “I wanted to use music, gestures, language and physicality to bring range, versatility and new interpretations to my performances. That’s when Yakshagana started to interest me greatly as an art. I spent a month in Udupi, during performance season, watching various performances and the more I watched it, the deeper my fascination grew,” explains Ramprakash.

Kasumal — Sapno by Ujaagar Dramatic Association, Jaipur is another production to watch if folk art rocks your boat. An adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the story is told through nakal — a form of Rajasthani folk art that is on the verge of dying out. The play essentially talks about love and relationships, and follows four love-lorn youngsters in the forest of Amrogarh.

Going beyond just staged productions, the event will also have sessions like Meet The Director, where the director of the play showcased the previous evening will be in conversation with artiste Nirmala Ravindran,  Directors’ Roundtable  — a discussion by directors on the art of play directing and Playwright’s Roundtable, where writers will discuss the importance of quality writing with Prakash Belawadi.