Ranga Shankara has organised a nine-day theatre festival on a unique theme — Plays That Almost Weren’t — from October 27 to November 4. It focuses on bold plays that faced opposition, but stood their ground.
Nine plays from various parts of the country will be staged and there will be discussions around them. The festival gains significance at a time when when the staging of Shiva, on the theme of discrimination against the LGBTQI community, directed by Dayasindhu Sakrepatna, has been put off following a protest by right-wing groups.
Festival director Vivek Madan says that, throughout history, there have been attempts to alter, silence or completely destroy works of theatre due to “unacceptable content”, whether the motivations for censorship was religious, social or political. Yet, artists have long pushed the boundaries of “offensive” through their imagery and content.
Surendranath, whose Ahalya , an adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, will be the inaugural play, said, “History is testimony to the fact that irrespective of time, place or faith, intolerance has always raised its ugly head. Literature has countered this challenge most potently and all along. Intolerance affected the greatest playwrights. Hence, a festival of plays that focuses on these themes, which were banned during their times.” He added that it was relevant in the challenging times that we are living in.
Mr. Madan said, “We live in a time when taking offence and stifling artistic freedom seem to have become the norm... it is healthy to criticise theatre, question it, argue over it, but forbidding it means shrinking the shared heritage and future of the community of humanity.”
The other plays that will be staged are Rajendra Laxmi of Aesthetic Dance Studio, Kathmandu; Dohri Zindagi of Rahi Theatre, Mumbai; Animal Farm by Tahatto, Bengaluru; I Am Not Here of The Lost Post Initiative, Bengaluru; Ammi Jaan of The Laughing Cavalier, Bengaluru; Chandala of Indianostrum, Pondicherry; Mahish of Third Space Collective, New Delhi, and Rakshas of Tadpole Repertory, New Delhi.
In the day time, there will be debates on the issue of artistic freedom. Sudhanva Deshpande, Sheba Chhachhi, Sadanand Menon, Samik Bandopadyay, E.P. Unni and Sumangala Damodran are expected to participate. There will be a series of rehearsed readings of dramatic texts that reinterpret and re-contextualise older texts to challenge censorship and celebrate dissent.
