Two hours, myriad emotions

Ten plays from varied genres feature in Short+Sweet South India 2016

PHOTO: SHRIKKANTH GOVINDARAJAN

If you love theatre, but can’t decide if you want to watch tragedy, comedy, tragi-comedy, romance, suspense or horror, there’s a solution. Watch them all, and in the span of two hours. That’s what Short+Sweet South India 2016 offers in the city in the month of July.

Short+Sweet Theatre is a festival of 10-minute theatre, which started in Australia in 2002, and is now held annually in 30 cities across seven countries. This year’s is the fifth edition in Chennai, and is presented by Prakriti Foundation and The Blu Lotus Foundation, in association with the Alliance Française of Madras.

The first week featured plays written by Balakumaran Murugesan, Syama Chilukuri and Jagadeesh Kanna. Directors included Pooja Devariya (of

Iraivi fame), Bhargav Ramakrishnan and Anand Ravichandran. The audience vote for best play went to

The Ordinary City written by Balajee Ge, directed by Janardhanan Raghavan, with Ayan Shukla playing Varun, who is new to Chennai and eventually falls in love with the place.

A panel of judges selected two plays to move to the finals, which will be held on July 27, 29, 30 and 31. These were Pooja Devariya’s

First Day First Show written by Arjun Chidambaram, who also acted in the play along with Sainath Saikrishnan and Naveen George Thomas, and Bhargav Ramakrishnan’s Shakespeare — As You Like It , written by Balakumaran Murugesan, starring Shravan Ramakrishnan, Lakshmi Priyaa C. and Sarvesh Sridhar. Kalieaswari Srinivasan — whose film Dheepan bagged the prestigious Palme d’Or award at Cannes in 2015 — played the role of an Olympic athlete in Jagadeesh Kanna’s monologue, Never Give Up . There will be a repeat performance of the play during the finals.

This week’s schedule

Date and time: July 13, 15, 16 and 17, 7 p.m.

Venue: Édouard Michelin Auditorium, Alliance Française, Nungambakkam

The Goon

Playwright: Pete Malicki

Director: Ramakrishna Dhanasekaran

Objectum Sexuality

Playwright: Ron Burch

Director: Meera Sitaraman

Who Am I

Playwright and director: R. Baskar (Koothu-p-Pattarai)

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Playwright and director: Drishya Gautam (The Stirfry Collective)

Nee

Playwright: John Pradeep

Director: Udhaykumar Gunasekaran

Real or Reel

Playwright and director: Sabarish Menon (The Drama Troupe)

Damayanthi

Playwright: Janardhan Raghavan

Director: Guru Narayan Chandrasekaran

Making a Supershero

Playwright and director: Bhargav Prasad

Sweep Sweep

Playwright: Balakrishnan Venkataraman (Theatre Nisha)

Director: Janani Narasimhan

27 f 5 11

Playwright: Shruti Parasuram

Director: Sunil Vishnu (Evam Lab)

The event is ticketed at Rs.200 per day and can be booked online www.eventjini.com. For details, call 87544 15362 or 86086 85156.