A fitting tribute

In June this year when India's favourite playwright Girish Karnad passed away, Studio Tamaasha decided to pay tribute to his enormous body of work as a writer. Theatre director and co-founder of Tamaasha says, "We organised two evenings of dramatized readings, of his first play, Yayati, written when he was only 23 years old in 1961, and his last play, Crossing to Talikota, written in 2018. We called the evenings BookEnds, indicating that a huge body of work stood between these two plays. The readings were well received and there has been a demand to continue the sessions. We thought we could restart with a reading of Yayati."

Yayati is a powerful play based on mythology about King Yayati who is cursed to old age in the prime of his life. Yayati convinces his son to take on the curse, but soon realises the futility of 'uncontrolled pleasure'. Karnad uses the myth to make a telling comment on modern life. Studio Tamaasha regularly hosts a series of programmes to do with theatre, literature, poetry, dance and music. "Dramatic readings of theatre texts are a big part of our work. So anyone who is interested in arts, and wants to spend a stimulating evening, must come for this one," says Shanbag.

What: Yayati-Play reading
When: Saturday, August 31; from 7 PM to 9 PM
Where: Samarth Vaibhav Business Centre, Andheri West
Entry: First-come basis

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