Month-long Manam fest outs spotlight on theatre

Hyderabad: Even as the OTT revolution has taken the world by storm, Hyderabad still holds its theatre culture dear. Celebrating the diversity of cultures and communities, the inaugural edition of Manam Theatre Festival kicked off in the city on Friday. Spanning four weekends from November 24 to December 17, the festival will showcase performances by four visiting troupes and four Hyderabad-based groups across four venues in the city. Alongside 18 performances, the line-up also includes a series of fringe events, including mini talks, meet and greets, workshops, storytelling sessions and demonstrations. “Our intention is to bring theatre artistes across Hyderabad and beyond together on the same platform,” said Harika Vedula, curator and director of Manam Theatre Festival. Frome puppetry, live music to dancing, each week features a home troupe’s performance on Friday, followed by two plays from a visiting troupe on the weekend. There’s Durse Brothers’ ‘The Far Post’ directed by Yuki Ellias who is the recipient of best actor at META 2017. The drama delves into magical realism with masked puppetry and dance. It has original music by Sikkimese band Sofiyum which is known for its Lepcha folk fusion. Another one that should not be missed is ‘Afghanistan is not funny’, a docu-play by multi award-winning playwright Henry Naylor.

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