Snow White and the Saline Curse

A play staged by The Creative Arts at the Max Muller Bhavan in Kolkata, Snow White and the Saline Curse could be the first to fuse enchantment with pressing environmental issues. Snow White and the seven dwarfs are now in the Sunderbans. The inhabitants grapple with the problem of rising salinity of the waters there and the loss of vegetation. The animals and the villagers including the village gypsy woman, woodcutters, honey collectors, the prince and the wicked queen make for a colourful play. Quite a task getting children from the age group 4 to 15 years to take acting seriously, but it was done and well. The live music was an added bonus and put life to the show. The script was by Sangeeta Bapuli and direction by Ramanjit Kaur.

Ranan’s staging of Equus

Peter Shaffer’s dark and brutal play Equus was staged by the theatre group Ranan at Gyan Manch. I am glad I did not give this a miss. The rave reviews Equus received in London where the central character was played by Daniel Radcliff had me fascinated.
Ranan has presented the play a little differently in its visual aspect, experimenting with classical dance making it all the more intriguing.
Alan Strang, the 17-year-old boy, torn between his passion, his beliefs, family pressure and the adolescent conflict held his place wonderfully. The psychiatrist had the toughest role, I believe. She was a bundle of conflicts herself, coming to realize by the end of the play, the futility of categorization of normalcy from the societal view point and asks herself, What dark is this?
It was evident that besides two of the characters, the others were not comfortable with English and this does jar at times. Nevertheless, the dances, the costumes and the lights made up for it. Vikram Iyengar has really done a commendable job.

Armenian Genocide

On April 24, I was given to recite a poem for stage, and this is a first for me. The occasion – The Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at Gorky Sadan. I recited the English translation of Siamanto’s poem, The Dance. This was the first time I had any association with the Armenians, though I have always been curious about the church and the school. My friend Kamal teaches at the Armenian school on Mirza Ghalib Street, Kolkata, and it is she who put in my name for this piece. Two pretty students enacted the poem as I recited it from the wings of the stage. The poem depicts a ghastly scene during the genocide in 1915 where 20 young brides are beaten up, made to dance and then burnt to death, all this witnessed by a woman looking through a window. Thanks to Father Oshagan Gulgulian for giving me an idea about how the poem needed to be emoted. To this day, Armenian all over the world await justice hoping Turkey will apologize for the genocide of 1915.