Citizens review ‘Karuppu’

Chennai, 18/08/2018 : 'Karuppu', a tamil drama was staged during The Hindu Theatre Fest 2018 held in Chennai on Friday. Photo : S. R. Raghunathan

The yin-yang factor

A completely unconventional movement theatre piece, Karuppu , was an experience which will linger in my memory. At one level, it was a play which explored the darkness, using Greek and Hindu mythology along with certain aspects of Tamil culture .

The play seemed to deal with the dynamics between male and female energy. The metaphor of Ardhanaareswara was strongly portrayed in Karuppu , as the woman power emerged victorious. The victory comes after the women go through various forms of violence.

The final act reminded me of goddess Kali who kills the demons, and saves the universe from the dark forces. If the director had not left the audiences to comprehend the play by themselves, my understanding and appreciation of the play would have been on a different plane altogether. Yet it was the performance by the artists, intense movements and acrobatics, distinctive music for every episode, excellent use of stage props and intelligent lighting that made

Karuppu an enlightening experience.

S Sanjana, Thiruvanmiyur

Awe-inspiring

I left the Museum Theatre recalling Emily Dickinson’s words : ‘If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.’

Indianostrum’s Karuppu was full of moments of staggering physicality that created quite a stir in my bones. There were moments that left me suspended in a state of mystery or awe— As if I had been shocked out of, or into something. But I couldn’t process it cerebrally. What did the motifs mean? What were the sub-stories, the mythological references? Some context — even a few more lines of written description—would have helped.

Selva Swetha, Anna Nagar East