Burning issues haunting contemporary India, including atrocities on Dalits and issues faced by women and the marginalised, will be highlighted in the 2017 edition of the National Theatre Festival (NTF) beginning here on Thursday.
The festival will line up some of the best picks from the national level, including Mahabharata that won three awards at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) this year, including that of Best Director for Anurupa Roy.
Being organised by the Department of Information and Public Relations, 17 plays will be staged during the eight-day festival. In view of the 60th anniversary of the formation of the State, special focus has been given to plays from Kerala, with six plays from the State being showcased.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate NTF 2017 on March 16 at the Government Central School ground, Attakkulangara, at 7 p.m.
The opening play will be Deepan Sivaraman’s theatrical adaptation of O.V. Vijayan classic Khasakkinte Ithihasam . It will be staged for three consecutive days at the same venue.
A major highlight of the festival will be the Manipuri play Pebet , staged by the celebrated Manipuri theatre group Kalakshetra, founded by the late theatreperson Heisnam Kanhailal.
Tribute to Kavalam
As a token of tribute to Kavalam Narayana Panicker, the great doyen of Kerala theatre who departed last year, his Sanskrit play Madhyamavyayogam will be presented by Sopanam, Thiruvananthapuram, on March 18.
Outcaste , the theatrical adaptation of Marathi Dalit writer Sharankumar Limbale’s searing autobiography Akkarmashi , directed by Patna-based theatreperson Randhip Kumar, will be part of the fest, as also New Delhi-based Lokesh Jain’s Bharat Mata Ki Jai, theatrical adaptation of K.A. Abbas’s Bharat Mata Ke Paanch Roop .
Another interesting work will be To Kill or Not To Kill , a solo performance by the New Delhi-based performer of Assamese origin Jilmil Hazarika, directed by Uzbek director Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli, in which the tragic characters of Hamlet and Medea are fused together.
The plays from Kerala include 12 Machines , directed by Thiruvananthapuram-based young theatremaker Kannan Unni A., Oru Enthinu Enthinu Penkutty , Malayalam adaptation of Mahaswetha Devi’s The Why Why Girl, directed by Aliyar K., Charithra Pusthakathilekku Oredu , Malayalam play directed by Jose Koshy, Ekantham , the adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short story The Bet , written by P.J. Unnikrishnan and directed by Sreejith Ramanan, Kaali Natakam , written by Sajitha Madathil and directed by Chandradasan, and Chillara Samaram , directed by Arun Lal for Little Earth Theatre, Ponnani.
