Starting today at the Bangalore International Centre, the three-day festival is a celebration of discourse on arts and gender — By Reema Gowalla After two years of online-only grantee showcases and curated performances (thanks to the pandemic!), Gender Bender is back at being the buoyant multidisciplinary arts festival that it has always been, at a physical space. Over the past eight years, the festival has mindfully selected and provided a…

Directed by Rebecca Spurgeon, the student production is all set to premiere this Friday at the theatre hub in Bengaluru — By Reema Gowalla Celebrated theatre personality Habib Tanvir’s beloved play Charandas Chor is having a rerun in Bengaluru — this time as a student production under the Jagriti Theatre Arts Programme. Originally a Rajasthani folktale written by Padma Shri awardee Vijaydan Detha, the narrative follows the life of a thief…

A recent adaptation of the piece— directed by Srinivas Beesetty and produced by Bangalore Little Theatre — sheds light on the discomfort of telling mental health stories to the audience — By Reema Gowalla Narrating stories of depression and anxiety on stage can be difficult, especially if the storyline sounds more like a ‘suicide note’ than the script of a play. End of the day, theatre is a form of art and its aesthetics are crucial to keeping the audience’s attention…

After touring France and Egypt, ‘The Nights’ is ready for its India premiere at Ranga Shankara this Friday — By Reema Gowalla Retelling a slew of centuries-old folk tales with a fresh perspective is crucial to Award-winning puppeteer Anurupa Roy’s new work, called The Nights. While it cannot be denied that the delicate art of puppetry has evolved over time, graduating from fringe productions to underpinning its identity in…

An Alchemy presentation, the Hindi-English comedy will be performed at Ranga Shankara this Sunday — By Reema Gowalla Much ink has been spilled about how technology helps us to connect and communicate with those whom we don’t get to see very often. The notion that technology is a boon in its own right was amplified even more during the Covid-19 pandemic, when most of us…

The multidisciplinary artiste talks about the latest edition of the theatre festival on the river island in Assam, and gives an insight into the making of her own dance-theatre piece — By Reema Gowalla A picturesque watery idyll perched on the Brahmaputra river in Assam, Majuli nurtures a distinctive meld of indigenous people and a natural ecosystem. Yet every monsoon, it manages to grab a little attention only as a ‘disappearing island’. Home to about 1,26,025 people, the Majuli district is…

‘Apne Ghar Jaisa’ review: a Ranga Shankara production, the Hindi-Marathi play is adapted and directed by Anmol Vellani, and performed by Padmavati Rao and Abhitej Gupta — By Reema Gowalla Rating: **** The play is arresting from the very first scene. A minimal all-white ‘miniature room’ sets the tone for a powerful performance that nudges you to question the future of humanity. There are circles within circles of meaning in Anmol Vellani’s compelling adaptation of Barry Bermange’s…

One of Abhishek Majumdar’s most talked about plays, Lhakpa Tsering-directed ‘Pah-Lak’ is set to take the stage at Prithvi Theatre Festival 2022 — By Reema Gowalla We may have heard of or read about the 1959 Tibetan uprising, but very few of us have cared to find out what’s been going on with the people of the ‘the highest region on earth’ ever since. The very purpose of award-winning playwright Abhishek Majumdar’s masterpiece…

The director and conductor talk about what went behind creating the dark political satire, which is set to premiere at NCPA Mumbai’s Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on November 4 — By Reema Gowalla I t isn’t always that we get to witness a theatrical production in India that is every bit phenomenal. Many would even agree that there is still a long way to go before we can consider the art form mainstream in the country. The National Centre for…