Mundo Mozart by Oracle Theatre, Chile, reveals the obduracy of society in recognising creativity of women. The play directed by Manuel Loyola Faundez revolves around Ana Mari Mozart, a prodigy, who is banished from the world of music. Her father and society are not yet prepared to recognise her creativity.
The family — Ana Maria, her father Leopold Mozart and her brother Amadeus – embarks on a musical journey through the 8th Century Europe experiencing multiple adventures, successes, failures and diseases along the way. Ana’s brother becomes a famous musician while her creative genius is suppressed.
“ Mundo Mozart is a journey through the universe of children’s creativity, though the imagination of little geniuses Amadeus and Ana Maria. The brother achieves worldwide success while Ana Maria is marginalised from artistic life and condemned to the conventional life of a woman,” says the director. The play confronts us with a history of gender discrimination, which prevails even today in different areas of lives. The visually rich performance fuses gestural language with masks, dances, music and puppetry that easily connect with spectators of any age, culture and geography. The play has been performed in many countries and seen by more than five lakh people.
“We have been improvising the play in each performance. The performers have been trained in contemporary dance, body mime, comedy of art, contact improvisation, and Kathakali. The main focus of our theatrical research is in the field of Gestural Physical Theatre,” said Mr. Faundez.
Uratti , by Neru Nataka Vedi, Wayanad, was another play staged on Monday. Adivasis tell their story on their own terms in the play. It explains how civil society exploited the tribal people. Directed by Manoj Kana, the play has a cast of 26 tribal people from Kambalakkad near Kalpetta. Uratti means wife in Paniya dialect. The play has been performed in more than 300 stages in the State and has won many awards. The Malay Man and his Chinese Father from Singapore, and Notes on Chai from Mumbai were the other plays staged on Monday.
