Encouraged by the overwhelming audience response to ‘Rangoltsavam,' a theatre festival that featured nine short plays by nine directors, which was organised in Palakkad last year by Tripti Arts Palakkad (TAP), a similar event was conducted recently. The second edition of the fete was staged to a packed audience at M.D. Ramanathan Hall of Government Music College, Palakkad.
The event was marked by the participation of theatre activists of all shades. The nine plays in the festival covered a wide range of issues.
The plays were ‘Abhayarthikal' (K.A. Nandajan), ‘Nizhalpookkal Paranja Katha' (Ravi Thaikkad), ‘Kalippattangal' (Sekharipuram Madhavan), ‘Choonda' (Beena Govind), ‘Beware of Dog' (Sreeji Nair), ‘Theenmesayile Paayarangal' (Aparna Varier), ‘Anandam' (Anil), ‘Ananthapuriyilekkulla Theevandi' (Akshay Kumar), and ‘Neeyum Chitragupta' (Jayan Kallazhi).
“We are not sure if we have made an impact with our play as it was slightly difficult to convey the idea in our script in just 10 minutes,” said Sreeji Nair. ‘Abhayarthikal,' ‘Kalippattangal,' ‘Choonda,' and ‘Ananthapuriyilekkulla Theevandi' were real entertainers.
Nandajan's ‘Abhayaryhikal' stole the hearts of the audience on account of the way he combined two short stories of K.V. Mohan Kumar, and the ease with which the characters in both the stories were arrayed on the stage.
New to the stage
Many of the actors and the directors were new to the theatre scene. The cast of Ravi Thaikkad's ‘Nizhalppookkal Paranja Katha' included children with learning disabilities. One of the plays, ‘Theenmesayile Payarangal,' by Aparna Varier, had four members of a family in the cast. ‘Neeyum Chandragupta' tried to present a modern story in the style of an old village play. Thrilled by the response from the audience, director K.A. Nandajan plans to take the plays to rural areas.
