Regional theatre in the spotlight

Gear up for the three-month long, multi-city Theatre-in-Motion festival by Utkal Rangmanch Trust which will showcase plays in Hindi and Bengali

Theatre lovers have much to cheer as the Theatre-in-Motion, a multi-city theatre festival, is headed to the city. Over the next three months, they will stage 15 plays in Hindi and Bengali.

A scene from the Bengali play Ajantobas

Conceived by theatre person Anant Mahapatra, the event aims to make the best of theatre available for viewing to connoisseurs across the country. As part of the event, plays will be simultaneously staged across New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, with almost 30 plays being performed across 48 show nights.

Mahapatra mentions that the mission was to bring regular professional theatre groups from one city to another with their best and longest-running plays, “As part of the event, nine Bengali plays featuring thespians such as Saumitra Chatterjee and Usha Ganguly will be enacted. Plays like Aurangzeb and Nyasa will host their premiere show in the city, at the festival,” he adds.

The festival offers a platform for theatre professionals to assess theatre production values, trend and content, by watching pan-Indian plays, and helps to boost young playwrights, directors and actors.

“When it is pan-Indian, regional language theatre, which has a larger contribution to Indian theatre, must get prominence. They give an identity to Indian theatre, which otherwise would have been dominated by a British English theatre,” reasons Mahapatra. These plays cover historic plots, family dramas and supernatural tales.

While theatre groups from Kolkata and Bhopal will be coming to Mumbai, Mumbai-based theatre groups such as Ekjute and Yatri will head to Delhi and Kolkata. Based on the success of the event, they hope to turn it into an annual feature.

PLAYS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Bengali
Ajantobas
Anto Adi Anto
Bhutnath
Sajano Bagan
Jaa Nei Bharatey
Kacher Manush
Chariganga
Hindi
Aurangzeb
Court Martial
Chandalika
Suryasth
Khol Do and Mozel
Chukaenge Nahin
Shamshan Mahabharat
Hum Mukhtarau00a0

From: October 5 to December 29
At: Veer Savarkar Auditorium, 252, Veer Savarkar Marg, Shivaji Park, Dadar.
call 09223251148
Log on to:u00a0www.theatreinmotion.in/contact_us.phpu00a0

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