Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), which will be staging The Prophet and the Poet to mark the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore on May 7 in Dhaka, will stage the 90-minute during the first week of June in Bangalore.
The Prophet and the Poet is based on a compilation of letters exchanged between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore over 25 years, and was staged at the Raj Bhavan last year, with the President of India in attendance.
BLT, which is celebrating its golden jubilee this year, has chosen to go minimalist with the production to emphasise the dialogue between the two personalities. Rather than attempting to realistically portray the Mahatma or Tagore, the actors pay more attention to the content of the letters. These missives reveal the ideological differences between these two greats over the freedom movement, and how the rift widened over the years. The play is directed by Vijay Padaki, an active theatreperson for over 50 years, and 1993 winner of The Hindu award for his script, Credit Titles .
For the five performances in Bangalore, the role of Gandhi will be explored by Anand Ramprasad and alternately by Sanjeev Iyer and the role of Tagore by Abhijit Ganguly and Shashank Purushotham. The play will be narrated by Aparna Nori and alternately Kshema Shivakumar.
The script, which is highly educational in content but entertaining nonetheless, was adapted by BLT from a manuscript by Shailesh Parekh, Tagore scholar-translator. It is based on the archival research by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, the former Vice-Chancellor of Visva Bharati University.
BLT in association with Vibgyor Entertainment, will stage the play at the Ranga Shankara from June 4 to 6. There will be no intermission.
