August 18, 2007
Posted by nmangala in Karnataka Dairy.add a comment
Date:03/12/2004
Karnataka – Mysore `Bahuroopi’ evokes good response
By Our Staff Correspondent
MYSORE, DEC. 2. “Bahuroopi”, the national theatre festival organised by Rangayana, has evoked good response from the people in the first two days.
With a slew of productions steeped in socially relevant messages, the festival has cut a strong chord among the audience. With focus on child rights and education, a few plays touch upon the themes that have a bearing on other social issues germane to modern world.
The Sanchari theatre group of Bangalore will give a solo performance on Friday.
The play Urmila revolves around the character of the same name in the Ramayana who has an insignificant role.
Sita goes to forest as Rama’s consort and hence was fortunate to stay close to her husband.
But Urmila is denied the right to join her husband, Lakshmana, and the central theme of the play explores how she spent 14 years rearing plants and trees imagining that they were her offspring.
She attacks the concept of royalty as dictated by the Aryan tradition and she is perceived to reflect the strength of the modern woman, who, in the absence of a male companion, could play a key role in the betterment of fellow human beings.
The director of Urmila, has paid rich tributes to Salumarada Thimmakka of Karnataka who dedicated herself to growing banyan trees which has become a symbol of conservation of environment and ecology.
Venkateshmurthy, who was a Kannada professor, is a creative writer and has focused on female characters such Draupadi, Sita, Urmila, and Manthare.
The one-act play will be staged by N Mangala, who entered theatre through Samudaya, and has been trained by B.V. Karanth. She was part of the Rangayana troupe for 13 years.
America Dairy August 18, 2007
Posted by nmangala in America Dairy.add a comment
Theater in Review
Hippolytos La Mama 74A East Fourth Street East Village Through Saturday By Euripides; a Kannada version in verse by Raghunandana, based on the English translation by Robert Bagg; directed by Vasilios Calitsis; co-produced by Evangelos Tsurdinis; set by George Ziakas; costumes by Prema Karanth; lighting by Howard Thies; sound by Tim Schellenbaum; music by B. V. Karanth and Philip Kovvantis. The State Theater of South India, Nataka Karnataka Rangayana presented by La Mama Etc., in association with the Consulate General of Greece, the Alexander Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies, Cult Productions and Christopher G. Kikis. WITH: Prameela Bengre, M. S. Geetha, Saroja Hegde, Hulugappa Kattimani, Alexandra Lazaridis, Jagadeesh Manevarthe, N. Mangala, K. R. Nandini, K. C. Raghunath, Mandya Ramesh, S. Ramu and Anju Singh.
Hippolytos La Mama 74A East Fourth Street East Village Through Saturday By Euripides; a Kannada version in verse by Raghunandana, based on the English translation by Robert Bagg; directed by Vasilios Calitsis; co-produced by Evangelos Tsurdinis; set by George Ziakas; costumes by Prema Karanth; lighting by Howard Thies; sound by Tim Schellenbaum; music by B. V. Karanth and Philip Kovvantis. The State Theater of South India, Nataka Karnataka Rangayana presented by La Mama Etc., in association with the Consulate General of Greece, the Alexander Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies, Cult Productions and Christopher G. Kikis. WITH: Prameela Bengre, M. S. Geetha, Saroja Hegde, Hulugappa Kattimani, Alexandra Lazaridis, Jagadeesh Manevarthe, N. Mangala, K. R. Nandini, K. C. Raghunath, Mandya Ramesh, S. Ramu and Anju Singh.
One can argue about the direction given by Vasilios Calitsis to Euripides’ “Hippolytos” performed by the State Theater of South India at La Mama. But the performance is spectacular and brings some real excitement to this most troubling and dramatically difficult of all the ancient Greek plays.
Instead of exploring the psychological labyrinth in the text, which tempts most directors, Mr. Calitsis goes for the grand theatrical effect, and he achieves it. In fact, for all but the rarest viewer, exploration of the text will be impossible; this is a verse version in the Kannada language of South India mixed with some lines of the Greek original. For those who have forgotten the story, occasional projected supertitles remind one of what is going on.
A formidable array of electronic and costume-making technology makes gods and choruses glow or flame up out of voids. A score by the Indian composer B. V. Karanth and Philip Kovvantis, based on both Greek and Indian dance music and played on traditional Indian instruments, gives the rhythmic speeches of the play an operatic quality. And the choreographed movements of the actors as well as of the chorus have the odd effect of heightening one’s apprehension as the sense of doom in the play becomes almost palpable.
Occasionally the special effects are distracting and the sound amplification annoying, and a couple of scenes are so stretched out they lose essential tension. But on the whole this is a powerful presentation of a mind-twisting drama about divine injustice, the incestuous desire of a woman for her stepson and her posthumous revenge on him for his chastity, and the suffering of a husband and father deranged by his wife’s lies and the hidden purposes of angry gods.
The members of this company — especially N. Mangala as Phaedra; K. R. Nandini as the nurse who, in trying to help Phaedra conquer her lust by confessing it, betrays her, and K. C. Raghunath as Hippolytos — make the characters and chorus grow larger than life as the gods involve them in dark Olympian struggles. Their characters are alien enough and elevated enough to be believable in such a situation, and yet close enough to us to be pitiable.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy
