Abhivyakti in its second edition this year, alongside giving space, both in the literal and figurative sense, to upcoming local talent, invited Rakt Kalyan, Girish Karnad’s famous Kannada play Tale Danda (1989), also translated by him into English as Death by Beheading. Rakt Kalyan, in Ram Gopal Bajaj’s translation, is directed by Sunil Shanbag with students of Drama School Mumbai as actors. It was very appreciatively greeted by nearly a full house, which included a few theatre persons and spectators not necessarily spotted at local theatre events, at the renovated Dinesh Hall on 5th May. The viewers had an opportunity here to understand theatre as something more than popular entertainment. This play gets viewers to see an important caste-related social issue in historical and cultural perspectives. Basavanna, the central character in the play is an important historical person (1105-1168) in the Bhakti movement of our cultural history with an honourable place in the galaxy of saint poets like Kabir, Nanak and Namdev, all belonging to the ‘lowest’ class in the social hierarchy, who with a low profile challenged orthodoxy and attempted radical reforms. Basavana, a towering figure among poets, philosophers and mystics of his time, is a minister in the…