Benaka's theatre festival goes online

Renowned cultural and performing arts group Benaka Theatre is celebrating its journey of 45 years with a theatre festival, which due to the pandemic, will be conducted online this year. They are all set to showcase the play ‘Baba Karantha’ on October 11 at 11 am. This is a ‘sacrificial drama’ is based on Vaidehi’s ‘Can’t Get Here’ and ‘Don’t Defeat Galisayya’.The play is directed by TS Nagambaram.
Founded in the year 1974 by theatre legend BV Karanth, ‘BeNaKa’ is an acronym for ‘Bengalooru Nagara Kalavidaru’. Over the past decades, the repertory has staged many popular plays, like ‘Hayavadana’, in different parts of India as well as at international venues. At Benaka, Karanth also took a special interest in children’s theatre and directed several plays with children. This group was taken care of by Karanth’s wife and noted theatre personality Prema Karanth.
Since its inception, the troupe has been staging Kannada plays that are known to have a social impact, as they depict the dynamic nature of socio-cultural scenario.
Among Benaka’s major productions are ‘Sattavara Neralu’, which has been performed more than 500 times; ‘Hayavadana’ (over 100 shows); and ‘Jokumaraswamy’ (over 200 shows). Other noted plays include ‘Kattle Belaku’, ‘Tabarana Kathe’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Kage Kunitha’ and ‘Yamaranjane’. The revival of Pu Ti Narasimhachar’s poetic play ‘Gokula Nirgamana’ is considered a masterpiece by director Karanth. The theatre personality was known for his visual imagination and unique style of narration. The contents of his plays were contemporary and relevant even to this date.
Karanth had directed over a hundred plays, more than half of which were in Kannada with Hindi close behind. He also directed plays in English, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Gujarati.