english

I thought it was difficult to write a review of a play I liked very much; I did not want to sound as if the theatre group had sponsored my review!But alas, the difficulty of that task is nothing compared to that of writing a review for a play that left me completely cold. Whatever the impression the play has on a member of the audience....the fact remains that a lot of effort and time has been invested in the production. For this reason alone I would like to find some positives in any play that I watch, and write…

Occasionally, instead of a light-hearted evening of theatre, one gets a  powerful, thought-provoking play to watch. My friend Shangon and I braved the rain to go and watch Michael Freyn's play, "Copenhagen" which was being produced by Centre for Film and Drama. I had not read up about the play, or watched it before.There can be no better synopsis than the online one that Ranga Shankara has on its online schedule:"Frayn's play, Copenhagen, speculates what might have transpired during a meeting between Nobel laureates Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in September 1941, at the height of the German…

Occasionally, instead of a light-hearted evening of theatre, one gets a  powerful, thought-provoking play to watch. My friend Shangon and I braved the rain to go and watch Michael Freyn's play, "Copenhagen" which was being produced by Centre for Film and Drama. I had not read up about the play, or watched it before.There can be no better synopsis than the online one that Ranga Shankara has on its online schedule:"Frayn's play, Copenhagen, speculates what might have transpired during a meeting between Nobel laureates Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in September 1941, at the height of the German…

My friend Priya Venkatesh,  herself a theatre person, told me about another interesting and unusual performance at Jagriti on the 15th of January, 2015. So I went with her and three other friends, to watch "Two Women Talking." The excellent brochure produced by Jagriti talked of story-telling, not as the retailing of fiction, but as the telling of one's life experiences. In fact, the telling of one's personal stories, and listening to those of others, has been designated as a form of therapy for everyone. The two protagonsists, if that is the right word, were Monsoon Bissell and Benaifer Bhadha.…

My friend Priya Venkatesh,  herself a theatre person, told me about another interesting and unusual performance at Jagriti on the 15th of January, 2015. So I went with her and three other friends, to watch "Two Women Talking." The excellent brochure produced by Jagriti talked of story-telling, not as the retailing of fiction, but as the telling of one's life experiences. In fact, the telling of one's personal stories, and listening to those of others, has been designated as a form of therapy for everyone. The two protagonsists, if that is the right word, were Monsoon Bissell and Benaifer Bhadha.…

When my friend Priya Venkatesh told me about the performance of “A Moment of Memory”, I was intrigued by the description of the performance and decided to attend the 8 pm showing at Atta Galatta in Koramangala, on January 10th. The production was by Visual Respiration, a group founded by Aruna Ganesh Ram, and  the show was directed by her.  'An experiential performance based on personal encounters' is the description of the performance in the words of Visual Respiration. It  gives the details about how this production came into being. It was not a “play” in the usual sense of the…

When my friend Priya Venkatesh told me about the performance of “A Moment of Memory”, I was intrigued by the description of the performance and decided to attend the 8 pm showing at Atta Galatta in Koramangala, on January 10th. The production was by Visual Respiration, a group founded by Aruna Ganesh Ram, and  the show was directed by her.  'An experiential performance based on personal encounters' is the description of the performance in the words of Visual Respiration. It  gives the details about how this production came into being. It was not a “play” in the usual sense of the…

The cast and some of the crew taking a bow after the show. It's always a challenge to go to a play after it's done several shows. This happened to me on 28th November, 2014, when I attended the staging of "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), at MLM Convention Hall, J P Nagar. The play, the fourth of a series, was staged by BLR in partnership with the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), is the dramatization-adaption of the book, "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Professor John Kotter. The play came about after Priya Venkatesh, long…

The cast and some of the crew taking a bow after the show. It's always a challenge to go to a play after it's done several shows. This happened to me on 28th November, 2014, when I attended the staging of "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), at MLM Convention Hall, J P Nagar. The play, the fourth of a series, was staged by BLR in partnership with the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), is the dramatization-adaption of the book, "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Professor John Kotter. The play came about after Priya Venkatesh, long…

It was good to get back to Ranga Shankara and theatre after a long hiatus, and it so happened that it was a play from the land I had left behind! Poorna Jagannathan Productions was staging, as part of the Martin Moran India tour, his play, "The Tricky Part". The play, written and performed by Martin Moran, is the story of his life.  Between the ages of 12 and 15, he had a sexual relationship with a much older man, who was actually a counselor he met at a Catholic boys' camp. How he resolves the ancient conflicts, and his…