Plays that struck a nerve and made you ponder, others that let you sit back and immerse yourself in wonder, dances that stimulated your senses, music that gladdened your ears (and heart) – this year, namma Bengaluru’s culture scene was just as vibrant and varied as the city itself. Here’s a quick rewind of the year that was, and what you ought to catch on the stage, should they ever come back.
All the world’s a stage
Adaptations were big this year — Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s stories — a heady mix of love, humour, satire and pathos was brought to life in Perch’s Under the Mangosteen Tree. Bangalore Theatre Company’s Cherry Thota, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard in Kannada got people to sit up and interpret social changes and political development not just in 19th Century Russia, but the world today. Fans of the Bard were also thrilled to see some of his most memorable stories like Hamlet – The Clown Prince, Nothing Like Lear and Macbeth — What Is Done Is Done on his 400th birth anniversary at The Shakespeare Theatre Festival. The Bangalore Little Theatre’s (BLT) adaptation of A Flea in her Ear, a French farcical classic, by Georges Feydeau in their The Frisky Suspenders and a retelling of KP Poornachandra Tejaswi’s classic, Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu that revolves around the role of women in encountering the evils of society also stood out on the adaptation scene this year.
In the pondering category, Ranga Shankara’s Theatre Festival didn’t disappoint. Focusing on the landscape of theatre beyond the metros, it brought together eight plays from smaller towns across the country (and in different languages) in its Not the Metros. Kriative Theatre Trust’s well-researched Carbon Cake was science fiction, drama and mystery rolled into a neatly packed performance about global warming. Toying with the ideas of hybridity, inclusivity and accommodation, allowing the difference of opinion as the core narrative was Veenapani Chawla’s celebrated play, Ganapati. Monkey and the Mobile also brought to the fore our incessant use of mobile phones and how it controls us — not the other way around.
Plays like E=MC2 about a method actor in the role of a schizophrenic patient and Karuthiruman that explored the evolution of a primary school teacher who holds hard and fast notions about science and morality and how he has been pushed to insanity, opens up about the topic of mental health. Kids had their fair share of dramatic satisfaction at the Aha International Theatre Festival for Children with plays from across the world put up for them to be filled with wonderment and to think about the world. If you’d been there, you’d have taken home a lesson or two too!
Care for a dance?
Contemporary dance took the stage by storm this year. Vishwakiran Nambi blended the classical with the new, and Arushi Mudgal’s creative approach to Odissi shone bright at Adhyaya, Nritarutya’s annual festival. Jayachandran Palazhy’s Attakkalari had a busy year too — starting with the Attakkalari Biennial, a much-awaited festival of contemporary movement in South Asia to Bhinna Vinyasa that was a ‘movement’ous take on the nature of rapid transformations in our lives and environment. While LshVa’s annual festival saw prime picks of traditional performances — everything from Kuchipudi and Kathak to Bharatanatyam and Odissi, Shona D’sa’s portrayal of love and loss in Giselle was yet another piece to remember. The World Dance Day by Alliance Francaise too saw an interesting rare dance film showcase along with dance performances.
Music to the ears
While Bengaluru grieved the passing of Aruna Sunderlal, the founder of Bangalore School of Music, she’d have been proud of what her school did this year — shows like Simply Schubert and Acapella through the Ages that highlighted musical geniuses like Schubert, Byrd, Tallis, Palestrina, Bach, Schubert and Händel through the voices of our own male acapella group, The Bangalore Men. The city celebrated Fête de la Musique/International Music Day with a repertoire of unusual rock-jazz-classical-fusion acts, welcomed international artistes like Scott Henderson, Steven Wilson and Jeff Loomis and even cheered for and with our city’s musical veterans — Chronic Blues Circus who marked 25 years together, Thermal and a Quarter, who’ve been on the scene for 20 years now!
Now, we can’t wait for 2017 to wow us!
