11th International Theatre Festival of Kerala begins

Thrissur: The 11th edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) began here on Sunday evening by staging the Sri Lankan play Bitter Nectar (Thiththa Kahata) at the Regional Theatre.

The play depicted the life and sufferings of the plantation workers who were forcefully taken to the island nation by the British from Tamil Nadu during the colonial time.

The play is directed by Rasaiah Loganathan. Cultural Minister A.K. Balan inaugurated the show and handed over the Ammannur Madhava Chakyar Award  to well-known theatre person from Karnataka, Prasanna.

The ITFoK this year will be a low profile event with minimum celebrations in view of the floods that hit the state last August.

Sangeetha Nataka Akade-mi Chairperson KPAC Lali-tha along with education minister C. Raveendranath were also present. Instead of 33 plays which were staged last year, only 13 plays will be performed this year, organisers said.

Midsummer Night's Dream and Iranian adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare is one among the major attractions of the fest and works for the setting up the stage for the play to be first staged on January 25 has already begun, they added.

Plays from Vietnam, Italy, Malaysia, will also be staged at the fest.

There will seven Indian plays including those from Kerala. “In place of a budget of Rs2.2 crore last year, the fest is conducted with just Rs 95 lakh this year ,” secretary of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi N Radhakrishnan said. 

Forty percent of the tickets have been reserved online and the remaining will be sold through the counters at the venue.