Contemporary capers

The seventh edition of Prakriti Foundation's The Park's New Festival will see five short plays performed by Stray Factory and a Contemporary dance performance by Deepak Kurki

For lovers of contemporary forms of performing arts, The Park’sNew Festival, organised by Prakriti Foundation, has some interesting performances lined up. This multi-city festival aims to showcase the best of Contemporary performing and visual arts.u00a0As part of the festival, famous writer and musician, Amit Chaudhuri’s audio-visual narrative, A Moment of Mishearing, was staged yesterday. But you can still watch Osama, Cinema and a Whole Lot of Black Money by Stray Factory; and NH7, a performance by Deepak Kurki.

Venkatesh Harinathan, Pooja Balu

Stray Factory’s production features five short plays that have been performed across the globe by the group and have won several awards too. So far, they have performed over 20 pieces in more than five countries including Australia, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia.u00a0“All the plays are originals and have contemporary subjects such as politics and cinema as their theme. The plays merge Indian forms of theatre and performance (a lot of movements, Indian musical instruments such as mridangam) and Western formats (the plays are in English and are text heavy). One of the five plays is My Name is Cine-ma, which we have performed as a full-length play too, based on the appreciation it received,” says Mathivanan Rajendran, artistic director of this entertainment collaborative.

Charan CS and Amaresha Kempanna in Contemporary dance performance, NH7

The third day of the festival will see NH7, a Contemporary dance piece by Kurki that also features Charan CS and Amaresha Kempanna. The act tackles the issue of rural population shifting to urban spaces on the lookout for a better living and the actual reality faced by them. The performance stresses on the side effects of haphazard and rapid urbanisation. To portray this scenario, the performers will create moving images with human bodies, which will reflect the current state of cities and the changing landscape across the country.u00a0The festival is being organised by Prakriti Foundation, an organisation founded in 1998 in Chennai, with an aim to change the cultural scene of the city through multimedia events, seminars, musical concerts, experimental theatre and other diverse forms of art that divulge from the usual classical modes of art practised in the city.

Ajay Ayyappan in stills from My Name is Cine-ma

On: September 11 (Stray Factory) September 12 (NH7)
At: Experimental theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point.
Call: 22824567u00a0

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!