It’s a ‘100-not-out’ for these two Kannada theatre productions

This year has been very eventful for Kannada theatre, as many Kannada plays from various genres took the stage. Be it a comedy, thriller, a period drama or a biography, the Kannada theatre scene has had a lot to offer. This year is also special because two plays that have been around for years have reached a century’s worth (and more) of shows over the years.Sandhya Kalavidaru’s will complete 110 shows on December 6, while , by Samudaya Bengaluru, recently performed for the 100th time. The directors of both plays look back on the journey they embarked on to get here.

SV Krishna Sharma, who is currently a retired officer from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), wrote and directed first in 1977. Since then, the troupe has performed the play consistently over the years, until 2004. Personal commitments had deterred them from performing the play and so, for over a decade, the production was in hibernation. Until they took it up again in 2016, once people asked them to continue performing the play. What has changed in all these years? “When I wrote the play, I just wanted to give a new dimension to. I have woven my personal experiences into it too. While the script remains the same, the presentation has been altered according to the times,” says Krishna, adding, “The actors too have changed over 30 years. I have even lost touch with some of the cast members from the team that performed this play first. We have a lot of new actors, now. Many are IT professionals and they are all passionate about theatre.”
The journey of , which traces the stories of Mahabharata, began 13 years ago. “We performed the play 13 years back when we opened at Ranga Shankara,” says Pramod Shiggaon, the play’s director. “After the opening, we performed all around Karnataka, then at an international theatre festival in Delhi. We traversed further across the country, covering places like Guwahati, Kohima and Imphal and even outside the country,” says Pramod. Of all their performances, he has a favourite. “It was the performance in Imphal that I loved the most. They followed the play so well and even interacted with us post the show. One, of course, is because everyone there is familiar with the in some way or the other. But also, this goes to show that with theatre, language is not a barrier at all,” he says. The play has undergone a change over time. “In the beginning, the play had a lot of different elements, such as Ajanta Ellora paintings, etc. Then, around the 50th show, I wanted to do a bare minimum version of the show and so I revamped the production and it is that version that we have retained till today,” he explains.

When asked about what awaits the future of , Krishna says that they plan to keep performing. “In last two years, we have done 10 shows of this play, while simultaneously performing our other productions too. It takes a good two and a half months to train a team for a production, but after that, it takes lesser time and fewer rehearsals,” he says.
Pramod, too, has plans for , which celebrated its 100th show with a three-day festival, featuring a seminar on the production, as well as the staging of two other productions — and . After that? “The play is yet to travel to more places in Karnataka, like Mangaluru, Gulbarga and Bidar. So that will be our focus for the next year,” he signs off.