The much talked about Kannada play — Shapurada Seeningi Satya is all set to be showcased at Ranga Shankara this week. The play, which was written by B Suresha, is about the struggles of a 77-year-old woman Seeningi, who lives in Shapurada. She finds herself trapped in a scenario where she has to deal with the conflict between the absolute truth and the apparent happening of an event. Director of the play Archana Shyam delves deeper.
Dharmasthamba and Uttara Boopa Beechi, are just two of the six plays Archana Shyam has directed. “Directing Shapurada Seeningi was a completely different experience, and a little more challenging as I had to direct around 20 people.
Also, the story itself is very confusing as it keeps moving from real life to fantasy, which made it a little difficult for the actors also to get a hang of it,” explains the director.
Music and dance are the two main elements of the play, that make it what it is, according to Archana. “The concept of the performance is two dimensional. The narration keeps shifting from real events to fantasy and we have tried to portray this deftly with the help of music and dance. It was tough to get the actors to get their steps right, as they aren’t trained dancers so I hired a body movement trainer and folk dancer to help out. Latha Srinivasa worked on the choreography while Vasu Dixit worked on the music. We had numerous discussions on how we wanted the act to look and sound,” states Archana, who is also working on a children’s play, alongside Shapurada Seeningi.
The play also raises a number of questions like the status of women in society, the dilemmas of values, and more. “The best part about the play is that it has a little of everything so it appeals to a large spectrum. Parts of it are humorous, while other parts are more serious and talk about the difficulties a woman faces. It also has a lot of amazing dance choreography and brilliantly composed tunes for dance and music lovers,” concludes Archana Shyam.
