Archive Category: 1993

As if the Indian-English sex comedies starring Pooja Bedi are not bad enough, we now have the fantastic prospect of ersatz Tamasha entertainments rendered in English by a grande dame of the stature of the National Centre for Performing Arts, Bombay (Tempt Me Not!, sponsored by Sangit Kala Mandir, July

One criterion that separates an accomplished theatre group from an average one is versatility. On the basis of Mahānirvān, we can say that Ensemble, now in its tenth year, has come of age. From its debut of Brecht’s The Jewish Wife, whose solo performance mode influenced later interpreters like Usha

Revivalism in the theatre does have its charms. Normally a retrogressive procedure, it sometimes has benefits, permitting later generations to savour the working methods of major senior directors. When the director is 83-year-old British stalwart Geoffrey Kendal, when he evidently still puts tremendous labour into a production at this age,

Ninety years old, K. Shivarama Karanth embodies the Yakshagana folk theatre of Karnataka. It is through his indefatigable efforts that Yakshagana reached respectability in Indian culture, so Natya Shodh Sansthan could not have chosen a grander old man to felicitate this year (Gyan Manch, September 22). His Yakshagana Kendra from

The supper theatre sweepstakes (or should one say steaks?) are on. Taj Bengal initiated the latest upmarket fad with Love Letters from Bombay, but the battle has been joined by Park Hotel, who brought down Prime Time Theatre’s Plaza Suite from Delhi for the weekend of September 17-19. Billed as

Ionesco’s categorical dismissal of explicitly political theatre as inherently totalitarian and inartistic has probably led to his unfortunate neglect at the hands of Indian directors, despite the fact that he is undoubtedly one of the greatest theatrical geniuses this century has produced. Therefore, Alliance Francaise’s Delhi production of The Chairs

You have to hand it to Open Theatre for trying to break out of the staid parameters that constrict “intellectual” Bengali theatre, so morbidly afraid of radical experimentation of any kind. Even if Anjan Dutt’s Chord Line (Academy of Fine Arts, October 19) owes a direct debt to Volker Ludwig’s

The latest productions by two very young Bengali groups show that at least some among the new generation are conscious of their rich theatrical heritage. Ushnik’s Kamal Kāmini (Sisir Mancha, November 5) is the monologue of a retired commercial actress reminiscing about the halcyon days of professional Calcutta theatre. The

In the true spirit of provincial rebellion against the centre, Northern Broadsides’ The Merry Wives (presented by British Council and Standard Chartered at Birla Sabhagar, November 29) makes a political point of doing Shakespeare in northern accent—arguably as difficult to follow as Caribbean or Indian English. After all, the Bard

The controversial play by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Duhsamay, long a work (or should one say production) in progress, has finally reached its approved incarnation. Now clocking in at one and a quarter hours, it took the stage on November 25 at Natyotsav 93, the festival presented by Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre

The internationally famous Peruvian novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa, became interested in writing drama only during the last decade, and Ila Arun’s Hindi adaptation of his La Chunga, titled Jamila Bai Kalali (presented by Anamika Kala Sangam at Birla Sabhagar, December 3), may well be the first staging of Llosa ever