A three day workshop on Gender and Theatre - As part of the Fulbright Alumni Award 2017 to Chandradasan - Sponsored by USIEF and Lokadharmi

A three day workshop on ‘Gender and Theatre’ was held at Nadakaveedu, Nayarambalam Kochi, as part of the Fulbright Alumni award 2017 awarded to Chandradasan, from 22^nd to 24^th of September, 2017. The workshop is sponsored by USIEF and Lokadharmi Kochi. The interactive and informal round table sessions of the workshop were inspiring with the participation of renowned personalities from various walks of life.

The purpose of the workshop was to introspect and share ideas and experiences related to gender equality in performance arts especially theatre. The workshop ruminates gender insensitivity as a multi-dimensional universal issue: all workspace performance could be related to theater performance; therefore it took a rather cognitive stand, so that the effort taken is percolated in nature and would trespass time.

Each one who came to attend the workshop, around 30 in number, (22 on the first day, 27 on second and 29 on the third day to be precise) from various walks of life- Theatre, Cine, Kathakali and Kutiyattam Artists, Dancers, Educationists, Lawyers, Civil servants, Administrators, Visual Artists, Sports persons, Singers, Traditional performers, Teachers, and students - eagerly shared the wealth of their experiences and contributed ideas to face and challenge the burning issue, in the deliberations. Due representation was given to seasoned artists who struggled against all odds and found their position in the field of performing arts. The participants included men also to complete the spectrum of understanding.

The value system which is the residue of a society’s moral, ethical, and religious culture was identified as a key factor that determined how a performer was viewed in that society. It is evident from how, in the west, an artist /performer is treated with that identity whereas in India, especially Kerala, the gender of the performer/artist determines the kind of treatment given. Discussions relating to this have happened before and in this workshop it resumed with fresh energy.

Day One/ 22 September 2017

The first day of the workshop centered on the history and position of women in theatre and its current scenario. Prof. Chandradasan, the director of the workshop introduced the subject. He mentioned that exploitation and inequalities have no boarders and women are exposed to various forms of abuse and ill-treatment worldwide. “The workshop intends to explore the dark corners of bitter experiences women encounter, the myriad emotions they live through and the voyeuristic eyes they have comprehended,” he said. The subtle evolution of the concept of gender and theater from the earlier women and theater was clearly delineated.

Prominent theatre and state award winning film actress, Sajitha Madathil gave a comprehensive discourse on the role of women in the history and evolution of theatre in Kerala. She adhered to the fact that women are still at the receiving end of unpleasant experiences, citing examples. The situation is as grim as it was in the olden days, even though creative revolutions have taken place at various phases in the evolution of the Malayalam theatre and theater has even been used as a tool to throw light upon the ordeals faced by women.

Kathakali artist Ranjini Suresh talked about the conservative realm of Kathakali training and the discriminations she had to face as a woman performer who took up to perform the challenging male epic characters like Ravana, in the male dominant world of Kathakali. The woman performer’s greatest challenge was to break free from the performance parameters set by the male masters even for female characters/roles. Innovations by women artists is rarely acknowledged and if at all recognized, it is ascribed to a male support in the form of a guru or blood relation.

Afternoon session addressed the main issue- exploitation and injustice women artist face in theatre. The eighty four year old singer and theatre artist P K Medini talked at length about her long, traumatic journey into art and life. She belongs to the first generation that tried to coalesce politics and art. The issue of language and body language was discussed at length.

Sajitha Madathil (Theatre and cine actor), Ranjini Suresh (Kathakali Actor), Madan Babu (Actor and writer), Arun PR (Writer), Aparna Venu (Researcher), Selvaraj VR (Actor), PK Medini (Veteran Actor, Singer and social activist), Asha Devi (Actor), and Shobha Menon (Visual Artist) actively participated in the days discussions along with others.

Day Two -23 September 2017

Eminent academician, writer, orator, and social activist Prof. M K Sanu graced the second day of the workshop. This 88 year old, prominent literary figure of Kerala who has authored more than thirty-six books, arrived at this workshop because of his passion for theatre. The topic acquired a progressive rise in insights and ideas as he discoursed authoritatively about the eventful milestones of Kerala theatre. He described how women were marginalized and swept aside by the powerful male attitudes and the contributory social structure.

Former Vice Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam and renowned Art scholar Prof. K G Paulose, theatre critic, writer and social activist Civic Chandran and prominent poet and activist Shri. S. Ramesan gave comments painted with stark realities. According to Prof.K G Paulose, the patriarchal psyche of a male dominant society continues to mar the theatre and its artistic equality. He spoke about the orthodox tribal psyche that has been passed down generations as archetypal images that prescribe specific performance spaces for the male and the female.  But according to him, an effective interference from the creative world can change the scenario positively and it is happening, though very slowly.

Civic Chandran had a different opinion. The Renaissance period had chopped off the artistic part of art and gave no prominence to art as a medium in its pursuit for uplifting women. He strongly suggested that drastic steps be taken to infuse artfulness in theatre.

Molly Kannamali, the veteran Chavittunatakam performer and mini screen actress energized the workshop with her unfailing spirit and enthusiasm for the art she represents. She gave a detailed speech about her plight as a woman performer. “All the old taboos with coarse, uncivilized attitudes still reign the world,” she said.

Chandradasan Introducing the workshop - Sajitha Madathil and Medini on both sides

Molly Kannamali (Veteran actor of Chavittunatakam), PR Arun (Writer), Prof. MK Sanu (Academician, writer, and social activist), Dr.KG Paulose (Former Vice Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam, Writer and theatre Critic), Civic Chandran (playwright and Social activist), Indu G (Kutiyattam Artist and Poet), Margi Madhu (Kutiyattam Actor), Nandini R Nair (Officer at Indian Civil Service), Prof. Anjali George (Academician), Priya Sreejith (Actor and Dancer), Anand Haridas (Journalist), and PK Medini (Singer and actor) lead the days deliberations.

Day Three – 24 September 2017

By the concluding day of the workshop, ‘the road not taken’, the path that needs to be taken, was more or less clearly identified. Each participant’s fresh thoughts and ideas synchronized with discourses from the previous day and that eventually became contemplations for future actions. Experts from new arenas like social auditing, business consultancy and tribal teaching asserted that everywhere the situations of women are of neglect and negation. In the course of the four sessions of the day, though different experiences and individual ideas were exchanged and interpreted, in the end it all coalesced as rivers into a sea.

“The peculiarity of a movement is that it never ends and takes a permanent shape; it travels, evolving in its course through time and space…,” one of the participants was heard saying at a lighter moment of the work shop…True enough…No finite shape evolved and no conclusions were reached…the ethos of Art started to travel to another phase, to take another form… The workshop flagged it off.

Sajitha Madathil (Actor), Prof. Gopan Chidambaram (Playwright and Academician), PR Arun (Writer), Madan Babu (Actor and writer), Shirley Somasundaran (actor and playwright), Dr.KG Paulose (Former Vice Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam, Writer and theatre Critic), Civic Chandran (playwright and Social activist), Bentla D’Coutha (Vice captain of women’s football team of India Coach, and referee in International matches), Nandini R Nair (Officer at Indian Civil Service), Selvaraj VR (Actor), Chathuri Chandrageetha (Social auditor and actor), Ferha Aziz (Lawyer, human rights worker and actor), and Suvarnna (musician), were the prime discussants in the final day.

Metawards and Kerala Theatre

 

 

 

 

 

In the history of Ten years of Meta (Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards) which is undoubtedly the best recognition in Indian theatre, three Malayalam plays had bagged the best play award. Karnnabharam (2008 -Lokadharmi Theatre Kochi, INDIA, -Chandradasan); Spinal Cord (2010 - OxygenTheatre Kerala - Deepan Sivaraman ) and now Matthi (2015 - Malayala kalanilayam - Jino Joseph). Also productions of Kizhavanum Kadalum Sasidharan Naduvil), Macbeth Jyothish Mg), Moments Just Before Death (Liju Krishna), After The silence (Martin John Chalissery) has won accolades for direction, acting, scenic designing, lighting design etc.
It is great to see that KeralaTheatre is really going high.... I am proud and happy to be part of this.

Egle & Cleopatra @ Ekaharya Fest

Agleyum Cleopatrayum (Egle and Cleopatra) by Lokadharmi Performed by Pooja Mohanraj, written designed and directed by Chandradasan was performed in Ekaharya Festival at Tripunithura on 27^th December 2014.

Agleyum Cleopatrayum (Egle & Cleopatra), is inspired from the folk myth of Egle from Lithuania and William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. The experience of the two characters Cleopatra and Egle are entwined together to probe into the different manifestations of love. Both Cleopatra and Egle were victims of Love; love with different facades and connotations. The experiences of these two characters from two different cultures times and spaces are reconnoitered so as to extrapolate and explore the contemporary female experience.

The love of Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt, seems to contain a venomous strain. Cleopatra, ‘the charming serpent of Nile’ remain a mystery; she cleverly uses the unparalleled sensuality of her body to make men kneel at her whims and fancies. Here love is highly sensual with ecstasies of physicality, wild streams of fantasy and extreme romanticism.

Why Cleopatra fell in love with all those men - from Caesar to  Antony - who came across her? Was Cleopatra a sexual maniac with infinite shades of lust? She identifies love as the ‘most delicious poison’, as ‘an excellent falsehood’ or a ‘riotous madness’. It seems that the love act of Cleopatra is not merely to satisfy her carnal instincts, but also is a defense mechanism to protect her country from enemies and invaders and colonizers. Cleopatra uses her unmatched talents and perspicacity in the art of love to conquer the conqueror. She calls herself as ‘Egypt’ and her desire is to be buried in the mud and waters of Egypt than taken to the royal courts of Rome; this reinforces that her act of love may be a political armor to defeat the invader. There is no escape for the invader from this enchanting queen, and her infinite scheme of seductions. But the tragedy is that in the end Cleopatra herself falls as the victim of her own prangs of passion, and emotional ecstasies. The hunt and prey merges to be one; and as always the ultimate loser is Cleopatra, the female.

On the contrary Egle the mythical character from Lithuania, who is forced to marry a snake is a simple farmer girl with all the innocence of a forest breeze. She had no choice to make, but marry Zilvinas, the serpent prince and go to his amber castle beneath the sea. She adapted herself to this alien environment and started living there happily. After few years she endeavors to visit her home to meet her folks. The condition to Zilvinas was that she shall not reveal the name of her husband; she should come to the sea and call his name to return to their abode. If he is alive ‘may the sea foam milk, if dead may the sea foam blood.’ But as she returns, he comes as a stream of blood, a sign that her promise had been broken. Brothers have got his name from the youngest child and they killed him to ‘save her from the clutches of a snake and save the family honor. Engulfed in inexplicable outpour of emotion which empowers her, she transforms herself into a deep rooted evergreen fir tree, instead of returning with her folk.

This performance do not narrate the whole story but is trying to portray the emotional experiences and ecstasies of both Cleopatra and Egle at three crucial situations each. Scenes chosen from Cleopatra’s story are the parting of Antony from her, her response to Antony’s marriage with Octavia and the final moments when she discerns about Antony’s death and her suicide. Egle scenes are the forceful acceptance of Zilvinas as her husband and travelling to the castle beneath the sea, her loneliness and desire to visit her parents and the journey back, and finally where she realizes the sad death of Zilvinas and her transforming into the fir tree.

The tormenting experience of these two characters are performed by a single actor to create a physical theatre charged with emotion. The performance and scenic design invokes a kind of ritualistic theatre; the tempo gradually increases, before reaching the peak. The actor shifts and transforms smoothly from the narrator, Cleopatra, Egle, and Zilvinas; the changes and shifts in time, space and character takes place spontaneously in a continuous harmonium as in the indigenous performance tradition of India. The intimate viewing in a sandwiched space adds to this immediacy of experience that provokes the spectator to complete the enacted poetry.

Egle grows from a simple country girl to a powerful person who can transform herself into an evergreen fir tree, while Cleopatra the all-powerful enchantress queen, falls down from the heights of a charming dreamy life and kills herself in the end using serpent’s venom. Though they live different terraces of experiences, they are knit together with the serpent motif; the living ritual practice of the serpent cult in Kerala in turn, merges the distance in time and space of fiction/ myth to the contemporary performance ethos. The performance takes place around a Sarpakalam, - the traditional/ritualistic practice of floral painting of Kerala, done with natural color powders. This Kalam drawn with motifs of stylized figures of snake gods, drawn in white, black, yellow, green and ochre give a rare vitality with shades of old-world magic, reminiscent with a primitive mystique drama of human passions and divine connotations. The knotted, twining serpents cast a spell to create an ambience of pulsating and evocative prelude to the ecstatic drama and links it to the depths of racial memory, both of the performer and the spectator. Towards the end of the performance the actress gets into a kind of trance with a swaying dance like movement, with white bunches of Arica nut buds in her hands and wipes off the Kalam. This culmination in a trance like situation lifts the whole scene/atmosphere to a voyage beyond space and time; the viewers are transported into a world of magic with the fragrance of myth, fact, and fantasy. The ambience of the design completes and compliments this ritual experience. Still, it is an actor’s theatre; love, anger, frustration, misery - all the feelings were expressed in the same purest form. Ritual itself is looked as a tool to connect the actors system and transform into a voyage to a stream of emotional flow.

The play is complemented by Salim Nair’s “Elegy for two Queens”, a composition in six movements that blends the classical Indian and western approaches to music.

Few visual artists will be painting their emotional response to the enactment while the performance is on, thus by adding to the wholesome experience. Well-known artists Asanthan and Devadas joined the premiere performance with live painting.

Painting, ritual, myth, enactment, dramatic text, music, lighting and design all supplements each other to create a multi-layered ambience/experience of viewing/performance.

Besides Pooja Mohanraj (actor), Bhanuvajanan (Set), Salim Nair (Music), Shobha Menon (art and costumes), Ajeesh Pulluvan (Sarpakalam), Madan Babu (Production in Charge), Sreekanth Cameo (Lighting), Selvaraj, Pradeep Sreenivasan, ShaijuT Hamsa (production Team) Sankar and Chandradasan (director) contributed to the show.

It is All Solo… Ekaharya Fetival at Tripunithura, Kerala, Dec 25-28, 2014.

Solo performances are becoming more and more common these days… Solo gives the actor to give him freedom to work alone so that the planning and scheduling of rehearsals can be done comfortably. Of course this trend is against the community and ensemble nature of theatre, but it gives the chance to do more experimentation. Many a times the format of solo is a challenge and test to the art and craft of the actor, to express without the other actors on stage. It gives challenges to the designer/director to find a suitable narrative mode so that suits one specific actor. It may be easier to travel and perform with one actor and less number of crew. It may make the budget, the cost of production and performance to come down, even if it is not the case always. It is also seen the current trend is to substitute the lack of other actors with technology and other devices…

Solo performances and its increased importance in the theatre scenario poses many questions to debate and discuss.

It is in this context the Ekaharya Performance Festival, a festival for solo performances conduced by Rajiv Varma Memorial Trust, Tripunithura, is being held during December 25 - 28, 2014 at Kalikotta Palace, Tripunithura.

A total of 14 plays will be performed during the four-day-long festival. Dr. Abhilash Pillai is the festival director.  The schedule is..

December 25

6.00  p.m.  Samjhoutha (Performer: Manwendra Kumar Tripati / Dir: Pravin Kumar Gunjan / written by Suman kumar based on the story of Gajanan MAdhav Muktibodh/The Fact Art and cultural society, Bihar / Hindi / 70 min)

Samjhouta presents the world as circus and showcases the story of a young man who is helpless in the circumstances and situations around him. The search for a job, the usual pain of running from one office to another is the plot of the play. He confronts the harsh reality of today –the changing face of today’s man, where the pain and sorrows of the clown are portrayed as a source of amusement and entertainment. Sometimes he is ready to compromise even with his own ideals and thoughts for his success or to be alive. In this blind race of globalisation, Samjhouta is an attempt to reveal the hard realities of life.

With the help of classical-traditional story telling style and theatrical devices, the story is performed as a modern and contemporary theatrical performance piece, where the actor is a bridge between the audience and the content of the story.

7.30 p.m.  A Bird’s Eye View (Performer & Dir: Choiti Ghosh / Tram Theatre, Mumbai / Non-Verbal / 60 min)

The story of a war pigeon during World War II is told with the help of objects, drawings/paintings and an actor who handles them. This form of theatre is a sub-genre of puppetry; it lifts everyday objects and lends them a persona. Objects work as metaphors; the entire show is created with metaphors like paintings, children's toys, games (“to show that war is finally a game”) and a pair of boots (“a symbol of power”).

Object theatre is a relatively a new art form and is an offshoot of puppetry. It involves the use of everyday objects that we take for granted. These objects though, are capable of speaking to us quite powerfully and taking us right into the heart of deep emotional experiences; a form of theatre which does away with actors, speech and costumes. The object theatre form has the potential for crunching several narrative conventions, making imaginative leaps and staying in the realm of the abstract.

9.00 p.m. Pandvani (Traditional Performing Art Form from Chhathisgarh / Performer: Teejan Bhai / 60 min / Hindi)

Pandwani is musical form of storytelling of Indian mythological stories. This form is very famous in Chhattisgarh, was mainly used for Mahabharata Stories. Teejan Bai started performing this male dominated form from the age 13. Now she is the embodiment of this unique traditional form and is performing all around the globe with her charismatic stage presence, singing, impromptu dance, and matchless performance. She has been awarded with Padma Bhushan, Sahitya Akademi award etc.

Pandavani, literally means stories of Pandavas, and involves enacting and singing with instrumental accompaniment of an ektara or a tambura in one hand and sometimes a kartal in another. Interestingly, as the performance progresses, the tambura becomes her only prop during her performances, sometimes she uses it to personify a gada, mace of Arjun, or at times his bow or chariot, while others it becomes the hair of queen Draupadi, allowing her to play various character with effective ease and candour. She at times is improvising and offering critique on current happenings and brings forth new insights to the story by giving commentary and interjections and enhances the dramatic effect of the performance…Gradually, as the story progresses, the performance becomes more intense and experiential

December 26
6.00 p.m.  C Sharp C Blunt  (Performer: M.D. Pallavi / Dir. Sophia Stepf / Text Collaborators Swar Thounaojam, Irawati Karnik /Flinn theatre / English / 70 min)

Winner of three META Awards (Mahindra Excellency in Theatre Awards) 2014 in Delhi for Best Original Script, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Innovative Sound/Music Design.

Meet Shilpa, an attractive, interactive and user-friendly mobile phone app that has been projected to be the most popular app of 2013. Created using the latest technology, Shilpa will sing for you - in the flesh. She will sing the songs you want to hear with her sugary and husky voice, and shake her hips when you want her to dance to your favourite tune. Best of all, she behaves exactly the way women are supposed to behave in the eyes of men; until the next update is released. Singer-actress MD Pallavi in her first ever solo performance is excelling in this witty, humorous and satirical interrogation of what it is like being a woman in the entertainment industry today.

The Indo-German collaboration explores the realms of digital dramaturgy, repetition and user choices to create a new hybrid form of theatre-meets-performance art, a funny, sarcastic and political rendition of the latest App in the market.

7.30 p.m. Josephinte Radio (Performer: Jayachandran Thakazhikkaran / Dir: K.K.Ramesh / Thespian Theatres, Kochi / Mal / 50 min) 
‘Josephinte Radio' was written for stage presentation by K.R. Ramesh with 10 characters. Jayachandran adapted it into the mode of a street play with only one character.

The play revolves around a simpleton named Joseph for whom the radio is very important. It is his best friend who sang songs for him, gave him good news and above all, connected him to the world outside. All of a sudden, he finds that it has stopped working, upsetting the balance of life. He goes from mechanic to mechanic and even to scientists to get it repaired, but in vain. They all fail him, citing one reason or the other. At the end of the play, Joseph cries out to the audience, “Those who are marching towards polling stations, listen, Joseph's radio is damaged.”

9.00 p.m.  – To Kill or Not to Kill (Performer: Jilmil Hazarika / Dir: Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli / Arnav Art, Delhi / Multilingual / 65 min)

In the fall of 1830, Alexander Pushkin - the 19th century Russian author stayed on his farm in Boldino while recovering from Cholera where he wrote the "Little Tragedies", 4 thematically related one-act plays in verse, aimed at creating tragedy within the framework of an ideological artistic unity. Each of the main characters faces intense Inner conflict which determines the plot and structure of the play. Pushkin focuses on human passions and the interplay between free will and fate: though each protagonist could avoid self-ruin, he freely chooses it. 
Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli, from Turkmenistan, known from his dynamic sets and artistic theatre dramatizes the first 3 stories in his production of Little Big Tragedies; In Mozart and Salieri, Salieri is a hardworking, but not very creative student whose jealousy of Mozart's genius drives him to murder Mozart. Don Juan in The Stone Guestlusts for Dona Anna, so he kills her husband and then tries to woo her. In The Feast during the Plague, a plague survivor struggles with the conflict between the loss of lives (which include his wife and mother) and to live his own life to the fullest.

10.15 p.m. If it be Now - Fragments and Impressions of Hamlet (Devised and performed by Arka Mukhopadhyay / The Arshinagar Project, Kolkata / English &Bengali / 40 min)

The piece is based on works by Boris Pasternak, Heiner Muller, Jan Kott and others, as well as original writing and Shakespeare's play. Combining elements of structured action and improvisation, it looks not for meaning or a message, but at experience - at an utterly human Hamlet, trapped inside a prison of words; responding as much to the physical space and the presence of the watchers, as to the universe of Hamlet. In effect, this is a passion play that tries to find illumination out of darkness. 
The performance has violent images and explicit content, hence viewer discretion is advised. It is open only to those above 18 years of age…

December 27
6.00 p.m.  Unseen (Performer: Kalyanee Mulay / Dir: Vishnupad Barve / Process Theatrez, Porvorim, Goa/ English / 60 min)

This play seems to interrogate a letter of Rabindranath Tagore and the poet’s misconstrued notion of womanhood as represented in the letter written with reference to a lecture of Pandita Ramabai, which Mulay recites and then goes on to depict inevitable like menstruation, child birth, motherhood, pain and surrender, a woman’s life in a patriarchal society. The play looks into the invisible and key practises like beautification of the female body and its subsequent commodification that lead to an awareness as a sexual object, mostly through instances of sexual harassment. This non-verbal performance was accompanied only by the sound installation in a setting of a house depicting all the rituals a woman has to go through in her life, thoroughly examines aspects like woman’s body, the male gaze on a female body, biological cycle of a woman, et cetera. Choreographed, rather than scripted, the play employs archetypical postures and gestures usually kept hidden and private—a woman giving birth, having an abortion, being harassed by unwanted physical attention, or even a submissive being pulled about by her hair—and movements that resonate with daily middle-class urban rituals like shaving bare legs, drying hair with a hair dryer, relishing a Cadbury chocolate by herself. Her body steps into the realm of material metaphor as she assumes the role of Woman everywhere and of all time, weighed down by her social roles and cultural burdens.
The entire play used a pressure cooker on a burning gas stove, gas cylinder, dustbin and other utensils as props. The whistling of the cooker along with other sounds created through different utensils (that seemed like sound installation) created coherence with the performer’s actions and objects used as props.

7.30 p.m. Moment Just Before Death (Performer: Manoj Omen / Dir: Liju Krishna / Saga Entertainment, Kochi / Mal / 75 min)

The play “Moment Just before Death” pivots around an old man, whose body sweeps through evanescent memories, pleasant smell of tender toddy, wild flowers drenched in longing and the endless waiting for his own coffin. Bereft of joy and hope he prepares himself for death, the only gate of deliverance for him. Years of waiting on the threshold of death is depicted as a prolonged curse. He prepares his body with the sanctity of rituals associated with the ceremony of death. The coffin is the seminal image which gives life to events and characters and the old man is shaping up his coffin day by day. The girl with flowers, Old man as a florist in the cemetery and the cult of Muthappan, intensifies the tragic posture of humanity in the bleak and macabre backdrop of the play.

The play attempts to represent graphically the old man’s views to the spectators straight away theatrically when he attempts to reorganize his layers of reveries lauded with love, gruesome realities of life and thoughts. The play is in a nonlinear narrative with eruptions of events and fluidity of situations and characters, the inter relationship between local cultures and languages and the trauma of alienation. The play brings home the Old man’s passage through various facets of his life by incorporating props, images and dimensions of visual plane to envisage a theatre of experience and interrogation.

Liju Krishna won the META award for best stage design and best actor award for Manoj Omen.

9.00 p.m. Agleyum Cleopatrayum (Performer: Pooja Mohanraj / Dir: Chandradasan / Lokadharmi, Kochi / Mal / 60 min)
Agleyum Cleopatrayum (Egle & Cleopatra), is inspired from the folk myth of Egle from Lithuania and William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. The experience of the two characters Cleopatra and Egle are entwined together to probe into the different manifestations of love. Both Cleopatra and Egle were victims of Love; love with different facades and connotations. The experiences of these two characters from two different cultures times and spaces are reconnoitered so as to extrapolate and explore the contemporary female experience.
The love of Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt, seems to contain a venomous strain. Cleopatra, ‘the charming serpent of Nile’ remain a mystery; she cleverly uses the unparalleled sensuality of her body to make men kneel at her whims and fancies. Here love is highly sensual with ecstasies of physicality, wild streams of fantasy and extreme romanticism. 
Why Cleopatra fell in love with all those men - from Caesar to Antony - who came across her? Was Cleopatra a sexual maniac with infinite shades of lust? She identifies love as the ‘most delicious poison’, as ‘an excellent falsehood’ or a ‘riotous madness’. It seems that the love act of Cleopatra is not merely to satisfy her carnal instincts, but also is a defense mechanism to protect her country from enemies and invaders and colonizers. Cleopatra uses her unmatched talents and perspicacity in the art of love to conquer the conqueror. She calls herself as ‘Egypt’ and her desire is to be buried in the mud and waters of Egypt than taken to the royal courts of Rome; this reinforces that her act of love may be a political armor to defeat the invader. There is no escape for the invader from this enchanting queen, and her infinite scheme of seductions. But the tragedy is that in the end Cleopatra herself falls as the victim of her own prangs of passion, and emotional ecstasies. The hunt and prey merges to be one; and as always the ultimate loser is Cleopatra, the female. 
On the contrary Egle the mythical character from Lithuania, who is forced to marry a snake is a simple farmer girl with all the innocence of a forest breeze. She had no choice to make, but marry Zilvinas, the serpent prince and go to his amber castle beneath the sea. She adapted herself to this alien environment and started living there happily. After few years she endeavors to visit her home to meet her folks. The condition to Zilvinas was that she shall not reveal the name of her husband; she should come to the sea and call his name to return to their abode. If he is alive ‘may the sea foam milk, if dead may the sea foam blood.’ But as she returns, he comes as a stream of blood, a sign that her promise had been broken. Brothers have got his name from the youngest child and they killed him to ‘save her from the clutches of a snake and save the family honor’.  Engulfed in inexplicable outpour of emotion which empowers her, she transforms herself into a deep rooted evergreen fir tree, instead of returning with her folk.

10.15 p.m. If it be Now - Fragments and Impressions of Hamlet (Devised and performed by Arka Mukhopadhyay / The Arshinagar Project, Kolkata / English &Bengali / 40 min)- Repeat Show.

December 28

5.00 p.m. Dr!Vikadan (Directed and performed by Vinu Joseph/ Theatre Lab Palakkadu/ 30 min)

This impromptu performance is a theatre clown show…

6.00 p.m. Majuli (Performer: Silpa Bordoloi / Brahmaputhra Cultural Foundation, Assam)

Majuli, a river island in Brahmaputra in Assam, inspired movement artist Shilpika Bordoloi to create a performance, combining dance and physical theatre. “The performance includes motifs representative of what Majuli means to me, and is based on the Vaishnav, Deori and Mising communities. Every other element also plays a role, including the costume, music and light design,” says Shilpika.

Majuli is part of Katha Yatra, a multi-media project that researches cultural practices along the Brahmaputra River, where the many moods of water are central to the performance and the sinuous movements of her lithe body resemble a river slowly meandering along its course. Shilpika alternates between the slow and fast pace to take us to a climax where the annual floods leave the island ravaged and torn and then is reborn again in a renewal of the cycle, which has been continuing for ages.

7.30 p.m. Notes on Chai (Performer: Jyoti Dogra / Mumbai / English, Hindi, Punjabi / 100 min)

Tea is synonymous with Indian lifestyle and “Notes on Chai” features a collection of thoughtful and entertaining excerpts of everyday conversation one has over tea, interwoven with abstract sound explorations that attempt to relocate our relationship with the mundane. Interspersed with these portrayals are abstract, guttural sounds inspired by Tibetan chanting, western harmonics and extended vocal techniques that seeks to stretch the limits of spoken language. With basic light and costume, Dogra holds her own on stage through extended vocal techniques providing unconventional sonic textures, to her world of conversations over tea.

Dogra says. “As I began working with sounds, the idea of working with language followed – exploring language as a way of keeping the mask, keeping the distance, and how these distances and masks often reveal more than we would care to show in conversations.”

9.00 p.m.  Jeevit ya Mrit (Performer: Seema Biswas/ Written by Geetanjali Shree/ Dir: Anuradha Kapoor / Vivaldi Cultural Society, New Delhi / Hindi / 60 min)

Rabindranath Tagore’s Jeevit-Ya-Mrit is said to be his most outstanding short story about Kadambari, a widow who came back from the dead only to die again because everyone thought she was a ghost. Kadambari wakes up in the crematorium, unsure of whether she is dead or alive. In this weird ambience in the dark night in a hallucinatory mood she recollects her past and as if in dream leaves the cremation ground and moves to the house of her childhood friend for shelter.

Seema Biswas rants and raves, questions and critiques the society that left her for dead and when she returned alive, refusing to accept her statement that she was alive. Biswas shifts from one character to another, intercutting it with Kadambari’s questioning, scathing and incisive voice soaked with an electric chemistry and an energy challenging for a character — submissive, surrendering and affectionate when alive. The props, setting, lighting and the ‘look’ Kadambari is given invests the ambience with the pall of death which creates from within itself, the anguished cry of a woman begging the world to let her live. Through her monologue and a variety of tones ranging from a whisper to loud delivery and intensity of emotions, she imparts insights into the traumatic, insulted and humiliated world of a Hindu widow.

Out of Crèche

 

DIWAN SINGH BAJELI

As Jashn-e-bachpan comes to a close in New Delhi, a look at plays that stood out in the 12-day festival of theatre for children.

Jashn-e-bachpan, the National Theatre Festival For Children, organised by Theatre-in-Education, National School Of Drama on its campus ended with the staging of two plays – “Hum Ek Hain” and “Swami Vivekanand” – this past week, which marked a great leap towards coming of age of the children theatre movement in the Capital.

Arguably, for the first time on Delhi stage a record number of several thousand audiences witnessed 12-day festival featuring 30 plays in different languages at three venues – Abhimanch, Bahumukh and open-air lawns. What is most heartening is the presence of children belonging to different social strata. Special arrangements were made to bring children from schools to the venue of the festival.

The NSD campus, which was given a festive look by Bansi Kaul, eminent stage director and designer, was full of life and colour. One of the laudable aspects was even the plays in regional languages were staged to a capacity hall, thanks to their aural and visual charm and brilliance of the direction. If creative efforts like Jashn-e-bachpan are made on a large scale, covering regions across the country, it will make children theatre a cultural and educational force. This was also an occasion to celebrate the silver jubilee year of TIE – Bal Rang Toli, which has been striving for artistic excellence in plays for children and building up audiences for these dramatic arts.

The plays marked a variety of presentational styles and genres. Though some were specially tailored for children, the majority of productions were sophisticated and some dealt with serious issues that plague Indian society. The dominant impression one had after seeing most of the plays with the child audience was one of the thematic variety reflecting the change in Indian theatre for children, moving from folktales and fantasy to socially relevant themes that children theatre practitioners earlier used to avoid.

Directed by Danish Iqbal and presented by Sada Arts Society, Allahabad, “Hum Ek Hain” deals with communal violence that affects every aspect of social and economic life of the people, especially rupturing the life of the children and women, giving way to living in ghettoes. An adaptation from “Par Humein Khela Hai”, the play contains some of the situations depicted in the production of the original directed by Mohan Agashe for Theatre-in- Education about three decades ago which was inspired by Grips Theatre, Germany. It’s a kind of a theatre for children that is bold enough to present sharp social antagonism by adult performers for children. This theatre aims at not only to entertain young people but make them aware of social ills that are eating into the vitals of social fabric.

Iqbal’s production enhances its emotional appeal with the use of lyrics set to lively music score by Gagan. The lyrics were written by Iqbal. The production is neat, aptly acted and admirably mounted.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival was the presentation of “Swami Vivekanand”, a puppet play produced by Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal, Udaipur, Rajasthan founded by Devilal Samar, folklorist and exponent of folk theatrical art and its aesthetic values. Jointly directed by Dr Laique Hussain and Shyam Mali, the script is imaginatively written with focus on the most important episodes from the life of Vivekanand.

Instead of following the usual chronological order of Vivekanand’s life, the play enacts episodes in the form of storytelling by a grandfather to his grandson. The action shifts from present to the past and again to the present. The script is written by Dr Hussain with economy of words, focusing on visuals.

Apart from the powerful moral lesson that the production conveys without being didactic, the fascinating aspects of the play was the creative use of traditional kathputli-puppetry theatre of Rajasthan. The colourful costumes, the finely carved out characters from wood and the dialogue rendered by the puppeteers, perfectly synchronising with the movements of the puppet characters who move with remarkable agility. The production also is an innovative theatrical piece to present a serious play through kathputli which is mostly known for providing entertainment to the children evoking laughter through various antics the puppets perform.

“Kalakar Kee Khoj”, which was staged by Kaladham, Jharkhand under the direction of Goutam Gope, highlights the need for entertainment for children and brings out the inherent creativity in a child by providing him or her a platform. It also shows the necessity of art in social life. The most thrilling sequence of the production is the one in which the children performers present vigorous and lyrical dance, a folk form, in colourful costumes.

Beautiful stage compositions, soulful live music, aesthetically designed costumes and narrative blending folk elements with contemporary concerns make “Thathamaram” (The Parrot Tree) a joyous theatrical experience. Directed by Chandradasan and produced by Lokdharmi-Mazhvillu, Kerala, the production is remarkable for its aesthetic beauty and director’s ability to provide its large cast an opportunity to act in a spontaneous way recreating varied situations which are at once serious and amusing, griping the attention of the audience. The way the story of parrot tree is revealed is fascinating.

Yet another group from Kerala, Rangachetana featured its splendid production “Manthrika Kannadi” that depicts the interesting folk tale to convey the complex message of the necessity of communication between the outer self and inner self of an individual through the metaphor of magical mirror, beautifully rendered songs, performers’ movements, formation of visuals which creates stunningly expressive situations. The production thrills, amuses and makes aware the audience to explore the inner moral self to protect oneself and society from the onslaught of vulgar materialistic forces. It is directed by K.V. Ganesh, the script writer and artistic director of Rangachetana.

Nandikar, Kolkata presented “Kanu”, which is based on a Vietnamese short story entitled “A Manly Boy” (Kiem) by Ma Van Khang which is directed by Swatilekha Sengupta. Intensely dramatic, imbued with vitality, the play is cantered round the life of Kanu, a young boy who loves his freedom and his trials and tribulations in the course of life’s journey through a world full of violence, apathy and faceless vindictive forces.

Entertaining, educative and playful are the words that convey the essence of Bharari (non-verbal) presented by Natyashala Charity Trust, Mumbai under the joint direction of Bharat More and Anvay Ashtivikar. Though the play depicts the evolution of man from primitive stage to modern one through movements, mime, stage compositions, the serious account is revealed with liveliness. A lyrical undercurrent runs throughout the show projecting different stages of the development of human civilization. The mime part is enacted by hearing-impaired performers, displaying remarkable agility.

One of the best productions of the festival was “The Boy Who Stopped Smiling” presented by Working Title, Mumbai and directed by Jaimini Pathak that has striking relevance to problems of youngsters and a satire on an insensitive society unable to understand the psyche of young people. The production is sleek, highly educative offering hilariously funny moments to the audience. It has all the elements – lyrics set to lively tunes, simple and delightful dance movements, suspense, pathos and happy ending – the children simply love to enjoy. The moments of acute anxieties are juxtaposed with light-hearted hilarity and the acting style ranges from realistic to farcical. The writer is Ramu Ramunathan of Comorade Kumbhkarna fame who deserves praise for his significant dramatic piece.

“Unity is strength” is the message conveyed by Apundna Pangalni with animal characters. Directed by N. Jadumani Singh, the most impressive feature is colourful costumes, variety of masks to represent different variety of animals, including lions and birds. The illusion of a dense forest is created with the creative use of glossy satin in lush green colour illuminated by skilful lighting. It transcends language barrier because of its highly expressive visuals and dramatic action performed by actors in the costumes and masks of wild animals which are favourite with children.

“Geete Gathe Milan Mala” directed by Bhagirathi and presented by Seagull, Assam captures the village life of Assam focussing on an elderly couple and people of the village that assemble daily near a well in front of the house of the couple. It is remarkable for delightful music and delicately rendered dances by women narrating a story with twists and turns.

Mayur Rangmanch, U.P staged “Laakh Ki Naak” under the direction of Shashikant Sharma. A moral parable, it offers the children thoughtful and delightful moments

Courtesy - The Hindu - FEATURES » FRIDAY REVIEW -November 20, 2014

Updated: November 20, 2014 18:10 IST

Thathamaram (The Parrot-Tree) travels to Delhi.

Thathamaram (Parrot-Tree) performed by Mazhavillu the children’s theatre of Lokadharmi travels to New Delhi to participate in Jashne-Bachpan, the national children’s theatre Festival of India organised by NSD. The play will be performed in Abhimanch at 05.00 pm on 06^th November 2014. This is one of the 25 plays invited for this festival.

Thathamaram is written, designed, choreographed and directed by Chandradasan, with Bijibal M doing the music, Set & Properties by Bhanuvajanan, Costumes by Rema K Nair, Lighting design by Srikanth, Art by Shobha Menon, Live music by, Subrahmanian, and Niranj Madan, Sound by Jebin Jesmes, Direction Assistance by Shaiju T Hamza, and Media Management and group leadership by Madan Kolavil.

This is the Fourth performance of the play

This play is developed from a folk tale which is extrapolated to throw light into contemporary reality. The story is about a parrot tree which is mysterious in many ways; it speaks in unknown languages, whispers and cries, and has flowers with an incandescent smell that penetrates deep into the human cell. The tree says “I am a tree, am a bird, am the smell, and am the sweetness. Dreams of this native land are buried deep beneath me.” This tree epitomizes the archaic myths about a tree that grows in the far deep forest with its fruits used as medicine that cures all sorts of illnesses. It has a rhythm that ticks the natural cycles to vibrate and resonate mutually and keeps the life moving ahead. This tree is visible only to the wisdom of birds.

Once, the King of the land is infected with a mysterious illness, and somnambulism. As he dwells deep into sleep, malicious, evil and vicious spirits and creatures that were buried for ages underneath the earth are reborn and resurrected. They craw into the dreams of all and one and disturb the balance of life processes. Everyone else including the princess loses sleep… “The evil species danced around in ecstasy; hunger and famine spread all over. New diseases sprang up. Untimely downpour of heavy rain and incessant storm; holes appear in the sky…Earth gets sunburns … Seasons loses their rhythms; all calculations go off the track…Rainwater tastes bitter… Severe summer of tragedies…

Princess could not sleep… The evil creatures danced around the princess day and night… she could not close her eyes for a moment… Suddenly, song of a little parrot that flew from the forest soothes the princess… The evil species cannot stand the bird’s song and they fly away from it. After a few days the parrot returned to the forest to visit her parents. Little parrot told her parents about the misery in the palace in her absence. To put an end to the wretchedness in the kingdom, the wise father parrot went deep into the forest and brought the mysterious mythical fruit that can heal any illness, sacrificing his life in this act. The little parrot has to gift this fruit to the King and on eating this; the trauma that had filled him and the nation will be cured.

On its way back to the castle with the fruit, the little parrot gets tired and dozes off for a while on a leafless tree. The evil species residing on the same tree spits venom and poison into the fruit. Then they rush to the palace and inform the king that the parrot is coming with a poisonous fruit to kill the king. The king in turn asks the little parrot to taste the fruit first, before he eats it. The parrot tastes it and dies. On the King’s orders, the dead parrot and the poisonous fruit are buried in a distant desert.

After a gap of many years, it rained continuously for three days in the desert, and then the parrot tree sprouted. It grew into a Tall Tree with enchanting flowers and fruits; but the people shy away as they are afraid of the poison...

Finally an old couple depressed by loneliness and many diseases, arrives there, they decide to end their lives by eating the fruit of the tree. But to the dismay of everyone, the fruit did not kill them, but they were rejuvenated and freed from their agonies.

The play connects the experiences of the present day as well as of the past with the myths, hearsay, folklore, tradition, legends, cultures and the flora and fauna of Kerala. It reinforces the rhythmic continuity of human life with trees, birds, and other living and non-living entities. The story creates a world which flows between real, surreal and mythical; all fused together to form a plasma of magical, dream like fantasy. The story is narrated direct and simple in a transparent, poetic and candid style to create a cosmos of exuberance, earthiness, and fantasy, where various elements co-exist, mutually complementing and completing.

The performance uses music, songs, movement and choreography accentuated by the use of simple properties and a narration with simultaneous enactment and characterization. Use of imaginative sets, properties and music suggests the space, characters, time, as well as the cultural/ political implications of the play. The performance language is designed so as to give space for creativity and expression of the histrionic talent of the children, the whole process of rehearsal providing an exhilarating experience to the little actors; the scheme of rehearsal and play making being equally important as the final product.

The Artists Traveling To Perform are Gowri Murali , Gouri Krishna A , Jeyasuriyaa M.A , Anju Joan, Malavika Murali , Krishna Radhakrishnan, Rose Sherin Ansary , Arun A , Hemanth Menon , Unnimaya Edanilath , Jayabhami Jayachandran , Ramakrishnan Lokanathan , Chelcy Johny , Unnimadhav Edanilath , Yedhukrishna K.V , Niranjana Kishan , Saswath Gopan, Bhanuvajanan , Subrahmanian, Niranj Madan, Jebin Jesmes, Shaiju T Hamza, Anu Gopinath, Madan Babu and Chandradasan.

Pooja wins Scholarship for young artists in Theatre from Department of Culture.

Pooja Mohanraj of Lokadharmi Theatre Kochi, INDIA is selected for the award of Senior Scholarship in for the year 2013-14 under the scheme of Award of Scholarship to Young Artistes in drama/Theatre. The scholarship is for an advanced training in physical theatre under Chandradasan, director of Lokadharmi for the next two years.
Pooja was getting their training in theatre from Mazhavillu, the children’s theatre wing of Lokadharmi when she was 11 years old and later continued in Lokadharmi.  She was part of the productions Panjarasala (by BV Karanth, dir. Chandradasan), Alibabayum 40 Kallanmarum (by Chandrasekhar Kambar, dir Chandradasan), girl in the photograph (written and directed by Shirly Somasundaran ) and Tom and Jerry (by Arun Pr Pr, dir Sudheerbabu Sankunni ) for Mazhavillu
She has decided to continue with theatre and is pursuing MTA in Schoolofdrama Thrissur after completing B.A. Economics Honours from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She was actively involved in Delhi college theatre circle, on-stage and off-stage. Have performed street plays in various public spaces in Delhi and also directed for Goethe Institute/ max Mueller Bhavan collegiate theatre festival organised as an Indo German collaborative project.
Her major production include Egle and Cleopatra (a one actor performance based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and a Lithuanian myth written designed and directed by Chandradasan for Lokadharmi Theatre Kochi, INDIA, Andorra (by Max Fritz directed by Kumara Varma ), reflections (by Mahesh Elkunchwar) accidental death of an anarchist (by Dario Foe), butter and mashed bananas (Ajay Krishnan, Neel Choudhury), burn (based on Ibsen’s works directed by Neel Choudhury for Ibsen festival), Ubu Roi (by Alfred Jarry, directed by Chandradasan for Lokadharmi etc. She did Workshops: David Zinder (Israel), Prof. S. Ramanujam, Kumara Varma, Kalamandalam Prabhakaran , TM Abraham, Ramesh Varma, Gopan Chidambaram, Venuji, Anne Dubos (France), Neel Choudhury, Anirudh Nair etc.
She had in many festivals including NIPA international children’s theatre festival (attended twice), Ibsen theatre festival, old world theatre festival, Soorya festival, Sam festival (NSD), Rangaprabadh festival etc.
She was hospitality coordinator for itfok2014.
With this Scholarship Pooja is are joining the band of Lokadharmi actors, Premdas AT, Sudheer Babu, Zumesh Chittooran , Joseph Tito, Pradeep Sukumar , Soumya CP, Priyaraj Govindraj G, Vinay Forrt, Nandini R Nair, Harikrishnan Sanu , Sukanya Shaji ,and Shaiju T H Sh who had won this scholarship earlier.

Gouri Krishna and Jeyasuriyaa get CCRT Scholarships

Gouri Krishna A and Jeyasuriyaa Mangayil of Mazhavillu, the children’s theatre wing of Lokadharmi Theatre Kochi, INDIA are selected for the award of CCRT Scholarships in drama/Theatre for this year. Both of them are getting their training in theatre from Mazhavillu for the last 5 years and have performed in the plays Thathamaram, Chipko Chipko, and Bommanahallilyile Kinnara Yogi. They have attended many theatre workshops and also participated in many National theatre festivals including International heater fest of Kerala ITFoK, Soorya festival, Swaralaya Festival, Navarang Festival etc. Both them are performing in the play Thathamaram in Jashne Bachpan, in November 2014, the National Festival for Children organised by NSD New Delhi.
Jeyasuriyaa has also acted in Films like Bicycle thieves, Thattathin Marayathu, and Neram. He is the son of Ambadiyil Harikumar and Deepa and hails from Kadavanthra and is a student at Vidyodaya School Thevakkal, while Gouri Krishna is the daughter of Harikrishnan and Ambili of Krishnathuasi, Vattekunam Edappalli, and is studying at Amrutha Vidyalaya Kunnumpuram Edappalli.
The scholarship is to continue their training in theatre at Lokadharmi under Prof Chandradasan. Out of a total of 22 children selected for CCRT scholarship for theatre/Drama this year they are the only ones from Kerala. With this Scholarship Jeyasuriyaa and Gouri Krishna are joining the band of Lokadharmi actors, Priyaraj Govindraj G, Sreeraj Rajan, Aarjith Babu, Namitha Nambiar, Aparna Ajay, Govind Nambiar and Sreeparvathi Prasad, who has won the scholarship earlier

Thathamaram at Navarang National Childrens Theatre Fest, palakkadu

The 3^rd edition of national children’s theatre fest by Navarang Palakkad in association with ministry of culture Govt of India is from 16^th of September 2014 to 19^th of September 2014 at Town hall Palakkad. The festival showcases 8 plays from Kerala, Karnataka, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Assam. The fest is inaugurated by MB Rajesh and the inaugural play is Thathamaram performed by Mazhavillu, Kochi.

The schedule of the fest is

1. Thathamaram (parrot tree) - Malayalam -performed by Mazhavillu, Kochi. Dir. Chandradasan @6.00 pm on 16^th sept.

2. Beraki Piraki Raja - Kannada-performed by Koshika, Uduppi. Dir. Apoorva Anagalli-@ 7.30 pm on 16^th sept.

3. Dalchuut – Hindi -performed by Eso Nataka Shikki Kolkota. Dir. Tapas Das @6.00 pm on 17^th sept.

4. Adventures of Chinnari – Telungu-performed by Theatre Outreach unit Hyderabad Dir.John Basheer @7.00 pm on 17^th sept.

5. Mari - Malayalam -performed by Navarang Palakkad. Dir. Firoze @6.00 pm on 18^th sept.

6. Team work - Assamese -performed by North East Theatre Academy, Assam. Dir.Simanta Phukan @7.30 pm on 16^th sept.

7. Chandanakkattilum Kuttiolum - Malayalam -performed by Rangachethana Trichur. Dir. KV Ganesh@ 6.00 pm on 19^th sept.

8. Totochan- Malayalam -performed by Pukade Kalalayam Kozhikode. Dir.Manoj Narayanan @7.00 pm on 19^th sept.

Thathamaram (The Parrot- Tree)

Thathamaram is written, designed, choreographed and directed by Chandradasan, with Bijibal M doing the music, Set & Properties by Bhanuvajanan, Costumes by Rema K Nair, Lighting design by Srikanth, Art by Shobha Menon, Live music by Kishore NK, Subrahmanian, and Niranj Madan, Sound by Jebin Jesmes, Direction Assistance by Shaiju T Hamza, and Media Management by Madan Kolavil.

This is the Third performance of the play

This play is developed from a folk tale which is extrapolated to throw light into contemporary reality. The story is about a parrot tree which is mysterious in many ways; it speaks in unknown languages, whispers and cries, and has flowers with an incandescent smell that penetrates deep into the human cell. The tree says “I am a tree, am a bird, am the smell, and am the sweetness. Dreams of this native land are buried deep beneath me.” This tree epitomizes the archaic myths about a tree that grows in the far deep forest with its fruits used as medicine that cures all sorts of illnesses. It has a rhythm that ticks the natural cycles to vibrate and resonate mutually and keeps the life moving ahead. This tree is visible only to the wisdom of birds.

Once, the King of the land is infected with a mysterious illness, and somnambulism. As he dwells deep into sleep, malicious, evil and vicious spirits and creatures that were buried for ages underneath the earth are reborn and resurrected. They craw into the dreams of all and one and disturb the balance of life processes. Everyone else including the princess loses sleep… “The evil species danced around in ecstasy; hunger and famine spread all over. New diseases sprang up. Untimely downpour of heavy rain and incessant storm; holes appear in the sky…Earth gets sunburns … Seasons looses their rhythms; all calculations go off the track…Rainwater tastes bitter… Severe summer of tragedies…

Princess could not sleep… The evil creatures danced around the princess day and night… she could not close her eyes for a moment… Suddenly, song of a little parrot that flew from the forest soothes the princess… The evil species cannot stand the bird’s song and they fly away from it. After a few days the parrot returned to the forest to visit her parents. Little parrot told her parents about the misery in the palace in her absence. To put an end to the wretchedness in the kingdom, the wise father parrot went deep into the forest and brought the mysterious mythical fruit that can heal any illness, sacrificing his life in this act. The little parrot has to gift this fruit to the King and on eating this; the trauma that had filled him and the nation will be cured.

On its way back to the castle with the fruit, the little parrot gets tired and dozes off for a while on a leafless tree. The evil species residing on the same tree spits venom and poison into the fruit. Then they rush to the palace and inform the king that the parrot is coming with a poisonous fruit to kill the king. The king in turn asks the little parrot to taste the fruit first, before he eats it. The parrot tastes it and dies. On the King’s orders, the dead parrot and the poisonous fruit are buried in a distant desert.

After a gap of many years, it rained continuously for three days in the desert, and then the parrot tree sprouted. It grew into a Tall Tree with enchanting flowers and fruits; but the people shy away as they are afraid of the poison...

Finally an old couple depressed by loneliness and many diseases, arrives there, they decide to end their lives by eating the fruit of the tree. But to the dismay of everyone, the fruit did not kill them, but they were rejuvenated and freed from their agonies.

The play connects the experiences of the present day as well as of the past with the myths, hearsay, folklore, tradition, legends, cultures and the flora and fauna of Kerala. It reinforces the rhythmic continuity of human life with trees, birds, and other living and non-living entities. The story creates a world which flows between real, surreal and mythical; all fused together to form a plasma of magical, dream like fantasy. The story is narrated direct and simple in a transparent, poetic and candid style to create a cosmos of exuberance, earthiness, and fantasy, where various elements co-exist, mutually complementing and completing.

The performance uses music, songs, movement and choreography accentuated by the use of simple properties and a narration with simultaneous enactment and characterization. Use of imaginative sets, properties and music suggests the space, characters, time, as well as the cultural/ political implications of the play. The performance language is designed so as to give space for creativity and expression of the histrionic talent of the children, the whole process of rehearsal providing an exhilarating experience to the little actors; the scheme of rehearsal and play making being equally important as the final product.

The Artists Traveling To Perform are Gowri Murali , Gouri Krishna A , Jeyasuriyaa M.A , (Anju Joan ), Malavika Murali , Krishna Radhakrishnan, Rose Sherin Ansary , Arun A , Hemanth Menon , Unnimaya Edanilath , Jayabhami Jayachandran , Ashin Xavier , Ramakrishnan Lokanathan , Chelcy Johny , Unnimadhav Edanilath , Yedhukrishna K.V , Niranjana Kishan , Saswath Gopan, Bhanuvajanan , Kishore Nk , Subrahmanian, Niranj Madan, Jebin Jesmes, Shaiju T Hamza, Jolly Antony, Rema K Nair, Anu Gopinath and Chandradasan.