Karna stands tall and resplendent as a mythical character having metaphoric dimensions. Poets in major Indian languages are fascinated by this character and have endeavoured to project him in the modern context. ‘I have been living and will die,’ Umashankar…

Image Credit : Esplanade.com Kathak dancers Vidha and Abhimanyu Lal have complementary traits. One naturally excels in the feminine lasya aspect of dance, the other in the masculine one. At Saptak when they gave a performance last Saturday, Abhimanyu came…

Pandit Birju Maharaj at Saptak (file photo) Charisma is not definable. It drips and gets felt. Among performing artists, Pt Birju Maharaj has it. That had the audience that chilly night wait right till midnight, as it does every year…

Seeta Patel in her 45-minute performance of Not Today’s Yesterday at Natarani on the final day of its International Art Festival seems to tell a fairy story nonverbally through images and sounds most of the time. Gradually, though the skilfully…

The interaction that followed Naomi Ackerman’s 50-minute solo performance Flowers are not Enough at Natarani last Friday as the inaugural presentation in the three-day 40th Vikram Sarabhai International Art Festival was as long as the performance. No one left nearly…

The panel discussion that followed Imogen Butler-Cole’s gripping solo performance Foreign Body at Natarani last Saturday like most such discussions veered round predictable inputs on the subject. That it is the power they enjoy in society in all its spheres…

Nirali Kartik and her Maati Baani band who gave a performance at Natarani on Sunday, November 4, 2018, is visibly on the crest of success they have achieved in taking Indian music abroad in an original style with an appeal…

It is heartening to see that a few young classical dancers from time to time take the initiative to explore ways of reaching out with a difference to contemporary viewers even as they explore the roots of our classical arts…

With deft touches, Abhinay Banker creates (Day Six, Sunday to Sunday Theatre Festival) characters, both major and minor, and the time they belong to in his two-act play Jaane Vo Kaise Log The at Natarani amphitheatre chock-a-block dominantly with keen…

The Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, though a throbbing national cultural entity, has remained a distant existence for Ahmedabad all these years. With twin objectives its current Chairman Shekhar Sen, a versatile performing artist himself, set to it, it came…

It was just as well that Ratan Thiyam’s Macbeth, SNA’s final performance at the Amphitheatre of the Gujarat University, was in Manipuri, the language nearly everyone in the audience did not understand. It was through its recurring strong visual motif…

How do you commemorate an existence that had something of the Being she had kinship with? For those who knew her and grew up breathing the breath of her breath Mrinalini Sarabhai, who straddled a century as a legendary Bharatanatyam…

It is heartening to see in recent weeks young amateur performers taking theatre seriously, not as a medium of light entertainment. Hunting the Sun in English at Scrapyard at its second show last Sunday kept the viewers, both young and elderly,…

At a single Reading Performance (HK Hall, September 6) of Mahesh Dattani’s famous play Tara by teachers of English, final-year students of Special English must have understood its theme and characters much better than during many hours in the class.…

A playwright, Vijay Tendulkar once observed, should act in a play and see how a character and his voice are projected. Those who wish to be actors need to do plays like his Shantata! Court Chaalu Aahe! Vijay Tendulkar is…

It’s the freshened Ashadh evening ambience of a spacious chowk, a modern version of the traditional one in pols on the other side of the river, becoming a performance space for Kathak that prompts this response.  The inviting architectural design,…

Semicolon, in Hindi, at Ouroboros gives glimpses of the magic theatre is capable of. Watching it, just as performing it for the actors, becomes an intensely engaging experience. There are many factors that produce this experience. The theme of a…

Heavy rhythmic thuds made with strong footwork to robust male singing and music emanated from Kadamb’s practice hall instead of the familiar buzz-like soft tinkle of ghungrus last Wednesday evening. Pankaj Sihag, Rohit Parihar and Mohit Shridhar danced three vigorous…

In his right hand, Krishna held the Sundarshan Chakra. As much a symbol of continuity and auspiciousness, it was a weapon with lethal powers. Krishna did use it against Shishupal. Gandhi moved with his right hand the chakra of his…

The final day’s performance of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Atmakatha, directed by Vinay Sharma, proved an unplanned celebratory finale of the 15-day Theatre Olympics (Ahmedabad). Dramatic art ascended its peak in Kolkata-based Padatik’s production. The overflowing theatre-lovers at the Tagore Hall appreciated even…

God said, ‘Let there be light’, and the first rays of light spread in the universe making all its beauty visible. Bansi Kaul said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light on a small world inhabited by people like…

Getting people to laugh with tasteless dialogue is the vulgarized theatre popular in perhaps all languages today at least in India. The function of theatre is not to entertain the audience cheaply, yenakena prakaarena. Theatre has a function, light or…

Dinesh Yadav’s Jogiyaar Mahabharat at the Theatre Olympics created a unique kind of theatre experience for everyone in the fully packed auditorium at the Tagore Hall on Wednesday. Still on a high following the 70-minute joyous performance for which there was…

Theatre Olympics at the Tagore Hall turned folksy on the World Theatre Day on Tuesday. Bharatiya Jan Natya Sangh’s Gabarghichoran ke Mai with close to twenty-five members in its cast brings a flavour of a regional folk theatre variety. The…

  Among Marathi people, there has been a rich tradition of intellectuals, social workers and performing artists who keep temptations of material gain at arm’s length and with a low profile remain dedicated to work related to social and political…

In no time were all doubts set to rest on the third day of the ongoing Theatre Olympics at the Tagore Hall. Local coordinator of the event Bhargav Thakkar looked elated that young viewers had nearly packed the auditorium. They…

  Bodhayana wrote Bhagavadajjukeeyam in the 7th century as a satire on Buddhism. His dramatic talent, however, far exceeded his intent and the Sanskrit classic remains a source of interest for many performers. Both translations and performances have been attempted…

A literary creator with an insight into theatre and a noted playwright, Sitanshu Yashashchandra did not merely light the inaugural lamp at the GST-INT One-act Finals (Thakorbhai, Feb 7). Referring to the origin of Natyaveda, he lit up theatre-lovers’ vision…

Questioning everything we’ve learnt from Indian cinema, ‘Item’ at Abhivyakti Festival takes a hard look at the role we play in adopting aspects of our toxic ‘pop culture’ into society.   It all began as Amitabh Bachchan uttered his classic…

Seems it was the harvest time at Kadamb’s annual celebrations held on 24th and 25th this month. A rich yield and a promise of bounteous years ahead for the Kathak Centre of international repute left dance lovers enthralled on the…

Last night, the city of Ahmedabad saw ‘Words Have Been Uttered’, a breath-taking celebration of the human ability to ask questions and raise voices to the truth. Galileo is ecstatic in the wake of his discovery of the planetary system.…

In the realm of art, picking up threads from your earlier performance, it is possible to outperform yourself and marvel at the exceptionally significant fresh outcome. Darpana Academy’s Kadak Badshahi seven years ago was certainly an outstanding multidimensional multimedia production…

Within the genres and format selected, Mirande Shah runs the whole gamut of swara notes and shades of emotions with delectable ease in Soz-e-Ishq – ardour-tinged love. Her rendering of gazals and Sufi songs, around a dozen, was all about…

A Thumri has thumakna built into this semi-classical 19th century genre evocative of a sensual mood. Thumakna signifies a lilting movement. In Kathak, the dancer is on his/her feet making such limited movement with expressive hand gestures and facial expressions,…

No sooner did I enter Kadamb’s cosy hall upstairs that cold Friday evening, I was relieved of all the tension I had carried of parking the car far away from it on an extremely busy cacophonous Parimal Garden Road. As…

The nip in the air for a change was low and expectations were relatively high on the ground open to the sky at the young theatre writer-director Chintan Pandya’s residence for ‘a unique experience’ in the ‘environmental theatre’ format he…

Time stopped, nearly so, when Omkar Dadarkar recited 10.40 onwards for over two hours at Vishwakosh under the aegis of its Lalit Kala Kendra and Agastya Foundation on Sunday. Viraj and Amar Bhatt had held the programme in the morning…

In the tradition of Absurd Drama, we have the legacy of a few dramatic works conceived of in their creators’ most introverted moments post-WW II when they were in turmoil. Like lightning, they blaze a trail to understanding aspects of…

Till the other day, though the calendar indicated onset of Ashadh, the clouds showed an anticipating Jyeshtha, and now when Ashadh, at times content with spells of occasional showers, assumes the character of Shravan, it seems the perfect time to…

Missing a target can be excused if you have set your eyes on a difficult one, it is said, but getting set for a lower target can never be excused. Drama students of J G College of Performing Arts read…

Among a couple of muses to Rabindranath Tagore, in the opinion of Ketaki Kusari Dyason, a perceptive translator of the poet, Victoria Ocampo was ‘the closest to him in stature.’ The natural beauty she was endowed with had the glow…

  A variety of interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays are being essayed on stage the world over during the year of celebrations of his dramatic genius unravelling mysteries of human behaviour particularly in relation to others.  ASTHA presented Atul Kumar’s Khwab-Sa, which…

Whatever scientists say, the moon will continue to have romantic associations and connotations.  A poet has ‘late night conversations with the moon’.  Another imagines the moon to be a balloon coming out from where ‘it’s always green and everyone’s in…

As text and, if competently done, as theatre, Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhoore (1969)has remained a rich source of reference for dramaturgy and theatre language. I recall that when the first theatre version of the play I saw (besides one in…

Why do some people worry about the future of classical dance?  If they go to Kadamb or any of its performances, they would find it pulsating with the passion for Kathak and a bunch of young teachers here, well-grounded in…

Drama in recent years at the all-Gujarat inter-collegiate One-act Competition being organised by Gujarat Samachar Trust and INT (Mumbai) for twenty-nine years has assumed social identity.  All the three plays on the opening day at its two-day Finals on Thursday…

Though Kathak dance and Carnatic music have been at the Saptak Music Festival for quite a few years now, it is in its 37th year that Bharatanatyam makes its maiden performance on its coveted stage. For its authenticity, who could…

Our classical dancers are articulate. ‘On this stage you have seen,’ Maulik Shah initially said at Saptak on Sunday, ‘two Kathak performances – one with gaharaiyaa-n in it, the other the tarvaraat of an emerging young Kathak dancer.‘ ‘We’ll try,’…

Rupanshi Kashyap’s Kathak being the very first recital on Thursday at Saptak, the Kadamb band of musicians chose particularly to present an Uthan for the audience to get warmed up for it. Rupanshi remained on stage, smiling in tune with…

Pt Birju Maharaj is perceived by dancers and dance lovers all over the country, irrespective of the form or gharana, as a colossus in classical dance.  At the Saptak Music Festival for many years, he has been along with a…

  ‘The show is already houseful Sir’. A response that surprised me pleasantly  because the students of Rangayan Theatre & Acting Workshop, who recently explored their acting skills from their masters, are having their debut show completely sold out. My…

Kumiben, as Kathak Guru Kumudini Lakhia is known to most of us, in her five-minute informal address to the audience at H.K.College Auditorium after Guru Vandana offered to her and other teachers at Kadamb by way of six dainty performances…

It was two in the afternoon and drizzling. The sky turned gray and everyone assembled under the shaded premises, called as a classroom. The lush green campus of MICA did help in uplifting the poetic side of the participants. Team…

Chekov Anton Chekhov is credited with an eye for observation – not just of what is seen but particularly of the psychology underlying it. On this count, all the neatly presented five playlets dramatizing his short stories in Ouroboros’ theatre…

Arpita Dhagat, as I know her, has a brain brimming over with creative ideas and tends to not settle for anything unchallenging. She had prestigious acting prizes before she went to NSD for Design and Theatre Techniques. On returning, she…

Image Credit: Book My Show Yes, Blame it on Yashraj gives viewers an experience of attending a gala wedding where money is lavishly spent and everyone related to the bride or the groom, whether closely or distantly, feels they are…

‘A hundred cook fires may be lit all at once!’ Bheem wished. Nakul wished their animals ‘will be warm in winter and cool in the summer!’ ‘Where kings can discuss statesmanship,’ was what Yudhishthir wished.  Arjun wished to see ‘a…