Venue, Gothe-Institut Bangalore @716, CMH Road witnessed an interaction with four participating artists ( photographers) who are part of the workshop that was conducted by German photographer Andrea Künzig and was designed to document the changes wrought by urbanization in Indian cities - through the lens of photographers from the South Asian region.
An intense, absorbing play…that was “The Woman In Me”, by Pawan Kumar , that was staged on Thursday and today at Ranga Shankara.
A view of the various plays that ACTof has put up, displayed at the Ranga Shankara foyer.
Rajiv and Nina are a married couple…and Nina is raped and murdered by three men when she goes to a party thrown by the airline that she works for, as an air hostess. Rajiv is a writer, not entirely comfortable at his being at home while Nina puts the bread on the table…
Pawan Kumar slips in and out of the personae of Nina and Rajiv, which confront Rajiv (the audience was not introduced to the actor who played Rajiv, or to the crew, on Friday at least…Pawan, you MUST introduce everyone to the audience at the end, even if this takes a few minutes.), played by another very talented actor. As the woman in the man confronts the man with truths that he doesn’t want to admit to himself, layers get peeled away….murder, rape, marriage…what is the definition of all these?
Pawan did fluff his lines a bit at the beginning of the play..but then, his ability to slip into a female persona which is so credible even when he is putting in the balloons in his bustline, and tying the saree on stage….that was superb.
The sequences where Rajiv and Nina reach out to each other, with superb lighting, made for a visual treat.
The props were: two water closets which served as the seating focus, with books, toilet paper, alcohol bottles, and other deteritus of daily life strewn around; two washbasins facing each other, with two buckets (with a fish in each of them, how symbolic!) and two mugs….the toilet was even “used” by “Rajiv” at one point.
Powerful performances from both the actors enhanced the intense mood of the play.
The rapid-fire delivery of dialogue by both of them in one sequence brought home the fevered pitch of thought. The use of shadows to show what happens to Nina is innovative.
The sound was well managed throughout, and voices carried clearly even when Pawan was “behind” stage.
The play disturbed me and made me think hard; I am very impressed that such a young man is able to delve so deeply into the male and female psyche and bring out the nuances of how men do not even understand when they are raping their own wives…
Strongly recommended! (though I would not ask someone who wants a little light entertainment after work, in the evening, to watch this play.) I think that ACTor is a very talented theatre group, and I hope that they go from success to success…
I went today to watch “The Final Rehearsal” by ACTor Productions, Bangalore , and came away very impressed with a theatre group that seems to have got its…er…act together, with a very talented team, led by Pawan Kumar.
The play is all about competition, winning and losing….acceptance and rejection. An actor describes his experiences, working his way up the ladder (from playing a tree in Macbeth, where he artistically sways to and fro) to finally getting the part of Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, only to lose it because when he trips over Browniel (more about this character later) he drops the actor playing Caesar…and that’s the director’s son!
The dialogue was very well-written, with that touch for the everyday phrase that is so natural when spoken. But Pawan did hurry up the diction a little, and I hope he slows it down for his next show. However, his grasp of (at least the well-known lines of) Shakespeare helped him a lot with his excellent comic timing; the spoof speech on “to act or not to act” brought the house down! And in the one or two places that Pawan did fluff the dialogue a bit, it was as if it was the Actor that was doing it; it didn’t seem out of place.
As the actor faces multiple rejections in each of the reality shows or the productions that he compromises his principles to act in, he breaks down….
One of the most impressive facets of the show was Pawan’s use of props. A chair, Browniel (I hope I have the spelling right!) Funich (”derived from Furniture”) the folding chair, is a character by himself. The Actor has a love-hate relationship with Browniel, and the sequence where the chair and he have an altercation was a great piece of theatre-gymnastics!
Also, I would not have believed earlier that one sheet of white cloth can become: the foliage of a tree,Othello’s cape, Macbeth’s witch’s robes, a soldier’s armour, Banquo’s ghost, Caesar’s shroud, the dead Caesar himself, a trumpet, an actor’s microphone, a plain bed sheet, Gandhi’s spinning mat, a ragpicker’s backpack, and the defendant’s enclosure in a court….truly innovative! Are you not intrigued about how this can be done? Pawan is certainly well-versed in stagecraft and mime.
Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore, is the venue for “Urban Changes”, and exhibition of the photographs of three people– Clare Arni , Mahesh Shantaram , and Vivek M. , from July 18 to 31, from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm each day. There are also a few photographs by Sohail Abdullah , a Pakistani photographer who lives and works in Karachi.
It is unusual to have a Pakistani showing his creative work in our country; the showing is a great opportunity to interact with the work of someone who hails from a country which is our neighbour and yet inaccessible to most of us.
An old adage says “there is more happiness in giving than in receiving”. With this in mind, Maxanim Consulting, a business consulting firm in Bangalore is getting together with Pixetra , the photo store, and holding a photography competition in Bangalore. The proceeds will go towardds supporting an organization, Mallige Smile Foundation, which is helping children with Cleft Palates. Dentists offer their services free of charge and each child undergoes on average 4 operations over a period of 14 years.
The theme of this competition is ‘My Bangalore, Your Bengalooru’.
From the greater purpose behind it to the way a winner will be judged, this competition is unique in several ways.
For more details, email Pixetra at:
club@pixetra.com
before Monday, 14th July, 2008,
or call one of their stores for details (Click on the name Pixetra to go to their home page.) They will email the details of the competition.
Pace of the development sometimes carry along hidden challenges which keep surfacing now and then. There are many children who sacrifice their childhood to support themselves and their family needs, this one is seen selling things which he should be playing with at his age….
I was in Jayanagar yesterday and saw this signboard, put up by Smt G Sharada Ramaswamy, a senior citizen:
I was very impressed that the lady cared enough about her city to have this sign up, exhorting her fellow-citizens to keep this city (”this is your own”) clean and green.
If each one of us could just follow this advice….what a benefit all of us would get in return!
Here’s Bannerghatta Road, at the Jayadeva flyover; four years ago, all the trees that had been planted on this road were cut down and the road widened, and the flyover built.
Can you see even a blade of grass in the picture?
What has the effect of the tree-felling, road-widening, and flyover-building been on traffic?
The traffic is as choked as ever, and all that has happened is that we have lost a lot of greenery and tree cover; the area has become much more polluted and noisy.
Can we stop further unnecessary felling of trees and widening of roads, which result in the same traffic congestion + lack of trees, just a few years down the line, and think of more long-term and people-friendly solutions to our traffic problems?
Details of the Third Bangalore Photowalk to be conducted by Karthik S.
Date: 29th June 2008, Sunday
Time: 8 am to 10 am
Starting point: Intersection of Brigade Road and Residency Road.
Ending point: Intersection of Brigade Road and Residency Road.
Route:
To participate mail at skthewimp [at] yahoo [dot] com.
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