The ten-day International Theatre Festival of Kerala concluded here on Wednesday. Mystic Sufiana, a Qawwali music programme by Ustad Ashraff Hydroz Qawwal and group from Bengaluru, brought down the curtain on the carnival of theatre.
In all, 19 plays, including seven international plays, six national plays, and six Malayalam plays, were performed at three venues on the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi premises.
The international section included plays from Brazil, Norway, Iran, Poland, Australia, and England.
The national section had plays from Hyderbad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Pune, Jaipur, and Goa. Most of the plays explored themes of oppression, unrest, and migration.
The festival, themed on Imagining Communities, was aimed at bringing diverse performances under one roof, according to Akademi secretary N. Radhakrishnan Nair.
Director and performer Amitesh Grover was the festival director of the 12th edition of ITFoK.
Poor selection alleged
There is widespread criticism that the festival has lost its sheen over the years. Poor selection of plays and fund crunch are cited as reasons. The selection process lacked democracy, critics alleged. Tree of Death, a Polish play by Pijana Sypialnia Theatre, was the closing show of the festival.
The play, directed by Stanislaw Dembski, was inspired by the Polish legend of a magical pear tree that nobody can come down from.
One day, Lady Death enters the tree and from then on, people could not die. “What would our lives look like if death did not exist? What would motivate us to act, to live?,” says the director. The play was presented in a symbolic spectacle full of music. It has exaggerated and comic characters, laced with dark humour. The performance was a reference to Polish folk culture.
Salma Deewani by The Atre Company, Hyderabad, was the other play performed on Wednesday.
Directed by Bhagyashree Tarke, the play was a light-hearted take on the mundane life of a lonely Hyderabadi woman living in the old city, who also happens to be a die-hard Salman Khan fan.
The performance was an attempt at bringing together the concept of absurdity and realism on stage through imagery, audience interaction, and storytelling.
