Plays from India

Play 1 : Caine Mutiny Court Martial (India) Inaugural play
Director : Naseeruddin Shah
Theatre : Motely Theatre, Mumbai
Time/Duration : 7.00pm/130m
About the Play : Based on a novel by Herman Wonk, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial is a complex portrait of what war and its accompanying stress does to people. The play also questions the possibilities of ‘Absolute Truth’ and the inevitability of war, would be best suited to engage with it."

"Play 2 : Sahyante Makan (India-Japan)
Director : Shankar
Theatre : Theatre Roots & Wings, Kerala
Time/Duration : 7.30pm/75m
About the play : Sahyande Makan is based on a poem by Vyloppilly Sreedhara Menon, depicts the conflict between internal and external realities as symbolized by an elephant. The narrative is set against the famous Temple Festival in Kerala, where the biggest tusker stands in the center with an idol of the god on his back. As he falls to his death the play wonders if his cry can be heard by the god he carries on his back."


"Play 4 : Spinal Code (India)
Director : C.S. Deepan
Theatre : Oxygen Theatre Company, Thrissur
Time/Duration : 6.00/105m
About the play : Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold has inspired this play which narrates the story of a murder revisited 27 years after its occurrence. On the wedding night of Angela and San Roman, Roman discovers that his wife is not a virgin. Then her brothers started a revenge to kill the violator. The drama keeps oscillating between the past and present."

"Play 5 : (Ashibagee Eshei) When We Dead Awaken (India)
Play Wright : Henrik Ibsen
Stage Adaptation & Direction : Retan Thiyam
Theatre : Chorus Repertory Theatre, Manipur
Time/Duration : 7.00pm/70minutes
About the play : People die and go to eternal sleep, never to be awaken again. ‘When We Dead Awaken’ centres on the non-reality of characters or the symbolism of characters. In the Manipuri adaptation, scenes from the three acts of the original play are picked up and interpolated without altering the storyline and disrupting the continuity. However, to retain the sanctity of Ibsen, no alteration is made to his dialogues. The play opens with ‘Shaktam Lakpa’ and ‘Shakhenbi’ talking and arguing about their incompatibility even long after their marriage. They then part to be with the persons of their choice. ‘Shakhenbi’ leaves in the company of ‘Lamlanba’ while ‘Shaktam Lakpa’ stays behind with ‘Shaktam’, the long lost woman from his past.
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"Play 6 : Ayussinte Pusthakam (India)
Director : Suveeran
Theatre : Ravivarma Kalanilayam, Kerala
Time/Duration : 7.00 pm/100m
Contextualized against the intense emotional lives of a father, son and grandfather living in a small village in Kerala, this play offers an inter-travel theatrical experience dealing with the concept of ‘Sin’. Through a sense of dramatic movements, it demolishes the mythical ideal of a pious life free from Sin. The play asks whether the Sin itself is a natural concept or a historical construct?"