PATKATHA | GANDHI
Once again theatre demonstrated its expression of more probing and immediate political content than other art forms – this time via two productions from the Hindi belt (therefore more courageous)
Reviews
NAT-SAMRAT | FAUST
Jashn-e-Rang opened with plenty of sound and fury, two consecutive evenings featuring Hindi productions of a famous Marathi reworking of King Lear and an adaptation of Goethe’s Faust. V.
HAZARAN KHWAHISHAN | SAKHARAM BINDER
Festival season for the performing arts has returned. Little Thespian, who turn 25 this year, inaugurate their national Jashn-e-Rang on Sunday. Uma Jhunjhunwala wrote and directed their latest play Hazaran
LAHARIR RAJHANSA
Bengali theatregoers have the opportunity at present to compare Mohan Rakesh’s Hindi classics from the 1960s in translation, in productions running concurrently. His third and final completed play before his
MEDEA
After many years, the Greek myth of Medea returns to the Bengali stage. Under Tapanjyoti Das’s direction, Rangapat have specialized in luxuriant spectacles of historical India; now their first foray
BILWAMANGAL KABYA
With seven productions in its current repertoire, Chakdah Natyajan has become a veritable conveyor belt of Bengali theatre, an enviable organizational phenomenon for a group located in the suburbs. The
BIRPURUSH | MUKTADHARA | TOTAR KAHANI
Three shorter (hour-length) local interpretations of Tagore cover a range of theatrical activities. Shilpi Sangha’s Birpurush arose from a workshop for Howrah high-schoolers, who impress not just with their moving
ARUNA’S STORY | MRS UDGARICA
Durga may have departed, but her spirit lives in two female solo acts. Lushin Dubey, consistently working for social awareness, stages fact in her current production, Aruna’s Story, presented by
EKLA CHALO RE
Gandhiji’s sesquicentenary has galvanized several Bengali groups to mount productions about him, the latest being Swapna-sandhani’s interpretation of Utpal Dutt’s Eklā Chalo Re. Swapna-sandhani had staged another biographical drama immediately
TASER DESH | MATIR KANYA | HATHAT EK MANCHE
Three troupes from abroad visited this year’s Rabindra Utsav, all of them deficient in one department or more, despite positive accomplishments in others. Two of them revived Tagore’s originally prose
MANUSH | LEFT RIGHT LEFT
Bengali groups continue to question the rosy picture of India that some parties propagate. Two new productions zero in on Jungle Mahal and, specifically, the paucity of opportunities and medical
BHADRAJA
The month of Bhadra seems appropriate to review Bhādrajā, SpectActors’ new play written and directed by Sudipto Chatterjee. Particularly drawn to the folk and rural ethos of Bengal, which has