Noted theatre personality Prasanna will return to theatre after a gap of almost two decades with Ayodhya Khaanda, a play based on the epic Ramayana.
As the first production of his theatre group Navodaya, Ayodhya Khaanda will start exhibition from May 5. Written and directed by Mr. Prasanna, the play will be staged at Kirirangamandira from May 5 to 8 at 7 p.m.
Mr. Prasanna, a well-known playwright, who was working with village crafts during his absence from the field of theatre, has now accepted an invitation to join Navodaya to direct plays.
“We have consciously chosen Ramayana. We believe Rama, Jesus, the prophet, all are being used divisively. Poet Kuvempu had declared long back that Rama is great, but Ramayana is greater. We want to bring this simple, but amazing truth back to the divided society,” he said.
Pointing out that Navodaya means renaissance in Kannada, Mr. Prasanna, who had earlier served as Director of Rangayana, said the aim was to initiate a second Renaissance through their work in theatre.
“For, we believe renaissance can only happen through theatre now. The last one that happened in the middle of the last century, happened through literature. And, it happened in all the Indian languages. After the medieval Bhakti movement, it was this movement that helped Indian languages and cultures to flourish. Writers and artists then took a middle path. A path of negotiation. They took positive elements from both tradition and modernity. And whatever they had to reject, they rejected without rancour,” he said.
He pointed out that indigenous cultures all over the world including Indian culture were disintegrating. “If excessive modernisation was destroying them from outside, excessive traditionalism coming as a reaction to it, is destroying them from inside. People are fighting one extreme with the other and with extremity. They are tearing down the social fabric,” he said.
He contended that theatre was a community and that cannot happen unless people come together. “We believe that art and labour, knowledge and experience, culture and science, should all go hand in hand. And, thus they should lead us towards wisdom. Today’s world is intellectually-driven. Even theatre has become an exercise in intellectuality. But, excessive ideation can either make you quarrel or get depressed. An actor on stage, on the other hand, should keep the audience together and not divide them,” he said.
