Multi-lingual theatre festival commences today

Chennai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai, is organising a five-day multi-lingual theatre festival starting Tuesday till July 14. The lineup for the festival includes productions in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu as well as in English. The first production of the festival is an English play by Theatre Nisha titled ‘Binnu’, which is a collection of seven stories from Part II of Apradhini: Women Without Men by Shivani Gaura Pant. “To celebrate and honour the pioneer author in Indian women’s literature, Shivani Gaura Pant, we decided to take short stories from her book Apradhini II and adapt them for the stage. Her work is strong and women-centric with a powerful message,” says V Balakrishnan, director and founder of Theatre Nisha. The plays revolve around the concept of early pregnancy, survival, child marriage, free will for women and lots more. The drama 'Draupathi’ by Komal Theatre, which will be staged on the festival's second day, aims to tell Draupathi’s story by incorporating her dance and martial art moves in the play. “Draupathi’s life is very unusual and it is only fitting that we do justice to her story in the best way possible. We’ve taken the verses from Bharathiyar’s poem ‘Panchali Sabatham’ verbatim and adapted it for stage,” says Dharini Komal, director of the play. The other plays that will be staged at the festival are the Malayalam musical dance drama ‘Chandaala Bhikshuki’ which is a chapter of a poetry compilation by Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, directed by Abhilash Parameswaran on the third day. Followed by the Kannada play ‘Kaniveya Haadu’ by Natana Theatre on the fourth day and ‘Bhootha Gaanam’, a play in Telugu, by Natarang Theatre on the fifth day directed by Kranthi Kumar. The show’s timings are 6.30 pm onwards and they are open to all.
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