Via Medea

Manoj Shah’s Merande, was the only Gujarati play at the ongoing Prithvi Theatre Festival, which is not surprising, since Manoj Shah (Master Phoolmani, Akha Akhabolo) is one of the very few people doing experimental work on the Gujarati stage. Merande, written by Bharat Naik, is based on the Greek classic Medea, and combined with the folk narrative and performance style of Kutch.It is a colorful production, with a lot of vigor, but the slow first-half, and the over-the-top melodrama might be negatives in the long run. Bakul Thakker as the prince, Lakha, brings a certain amount of warrior-like vigour to his role, and Manisha Kanojia makes an attractive but subdued Merande — the princess who gives it all up for love, and then extracts a terrible revenge from the unfaithful man by killing her children. It is good to note that TV stars like Bakul Thakker and Manisha Kanojia took time off to do a non-commercial play – they may turn out to be the ones drawing audiences at subsequent shows. However, as a theatre veteran noted, there is a very vital factor missing in most performances at this festival— Voice. Amateur actors and even trained actors used to working in television have lost the ability to project and modulate their voices.