Two famous illusory theatrical inspectors have reappeared in Kolkata, resurrected by the Hindi groups who first presented them 20 years ago. Padatik–rikh returns to Gogol’s classic political satire, The Government Inspector, in Sanjay Sahay’s Indianization titled Janch Partal, while Proscenium newly adapts Priestley’s psychological suicide mystery, An Inspector Calls, as
What happens to the close college friendships that disappear into the mists of time? Does destiny toss one of them back into your life to see what you can make of it now? Or do you actively seek out that past person to bring some meaning into an existence collapsing
Centre Stage Creations / Sanskriti Sagar hosted two all-women shows recently. Manhar Gadhia Production’s 7 x 3=21, their third edition of seven monologues, exclusively featured actresses for the first time. Director Pratik Gandhi chose the theme of desire, which immediately suggests inspiration from Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire, enacted
Solo actress-directors took the stage in half of the new productions at Nandipat’s Narir Mancha festival, spotlighting the tribulations of women from classical to contemporary times. Draupadi’s woes have supplied the material for so much drama that any revisitation must bear comparison with such achievements as Saoli Mitra’s Nāthabati Anāthabat.
This year’s Sabhagar Theatre Festival by Centre Stage Creations and Sanskriti Sagar featured as centrepiece the Films and Theatre Society (Delhi), who must have a rollicking sense of humour for naming themselves with such an acronym. Despite it, however, the two FaTS productions written and directed in Hindi by Atul
Narir Mancha, Nandipat’s festival around International Women’s Day of women directors, reached an auspicious tenth anniversary this year. Two of the new plays zeroed in on psychological troubles of their dramatis personae. Nirbak Abhinay Academy’s Wheelchair, written, directed and acted by Suranjana Dasgupta, traces the wrecked lives of a couple
Vinay Sharma is a class act in this Padatik–Rikh co-production. If acting forms the essence of theatre, one cannot hope for a more unobstructed demonstration of it than here, undoubtedly his tour de force as an actor in the three decades I have seen him perform. But first the play
Site-specific performances have not caught on in the conservative domain of Bengali theatre, though unconventional English groups in the city like The Creative Arts have experimented with this postmodern form imported from abroad, and cosmopolitan audiences here have also benefited from witnessing major international companies like that of Sasha Waltz
Celebrating its golden anniversary this year, Rangroop has grown from strength to strength, a different trajectory from many Bengali groups who have reached that milestone. Starting off as a small unit that produced only four plays in its first 13 years, it developed gradually into a more established presence, and
The trauma experienced by refugees, local and worldwide, forms the theme of two solo productions. East Side Stories, about both Bengals post-partition, inaugurated the newest performance venue in our city short of such spaces, the Janus Centre for Visual and Performing Arts in Park Circus. It consists of a 50-seater
Youth theatre in this city – though some of these troupes may justifiably claim they are no longer young and qualify for treatment on par with regular groups – encounters its first major roadblock when members leave after joining the job market. Those still passionate about the art find it
Solo performances constitute the nucleus of several new Bengali productions, in which technical inputs, stage properties or voices off add extra dimensions to the acting. In Broken Images, Girish Karnad put to test the abilities of the finest actresses (Shabana Azmi and Arundhati Raja among them), who must interact live
