Celebrating theatre and life

The recently concluded theatre festival Natotsav took the viewers through a sea of emotions and a journey across times and places. A rich display of theatre was perfectly rendered through the spectacular performances

Paying tribute to Indian playwright Gnan Pith awardee Girish Raghunath Karnad, Natotsav, the two-day theatre festival of Nishumbita featured four plays by him on December 12 and 13. The festival brought out the richness of Indian literature through the effervescent enigma of stage. ‘Pushp’ was the first play staged on the first day. It was a monologue in Hindi, which showed the connectivity between God and humans.

It is a story of passionate love and commitment, come what may. Vinay Verma from Sutradhar essayed the role of the priest in ‘Pushp’, and he is also credited with its translation.The monologue is about distinguishing faith between the godly and worldly versions of it. The priest is married and has children. In a Shiva temple he sees a woman named Chandravathi –an adulteress – and he falls in love with her.

Slowly he becomes very passionate about Chandravathi and goes to herhome regularly. He collects various types of flowers to decorate the Shivlinga each day. As his love for Chandravathi grows, he begins to then decorate her with the very flowers. Following an incident in which a high priest one day notices a long strand of hair stuck in the flower of the Shivlinga, orders an enquiry. The lover accepts his crime and finally commits suicide.

The second play staged was ‘Agnivarsham’, the Telugu version of ‘Fire and Rain’, which showcased the quest for power and a dance of death. Selected for the Bharat Rang Mahotsav at National School of Drama for 2016, ‘Agnivarsham’ was the most appreciated musically orchestrated production of the festival. Directed by Ram Mohan Holagundi, the play forges itself upon Indian culture with its roots based in mythology.

‘Agnivarsham’, musters an era of communism and secularism, while its spirit is bathed in love and lust. Late Bhargavi translated the play into Telugu from Girish Karnad’s original version in English. Krishna Priya Valluri acted as Nittilai in Agnivarsham and Sunjit as Raju. The other plays staged on the next day – ‘Broken Images’ and ‘Nagamandala’ were also perfect renditions of the original. - Madhu Yadav & Susanna Grace