I went to see “Swayamvara”, a Kannada play being staged by Prakash Belawadi for Abhinaya Taranga, at H N Kalakshetra, Jayanagar.

This was the first time I was visiting this hub of Kannada theatre; there was an ambience that was definitely different from that of Ranga Shankara, though both were small, intimate theatre spaces.

The acoustics of the hall are excellent, as, apart from the main background singe,Lalitha Shivaprasadr who is pictured below, no one had microphones.

The stage was also innovatively set in two parts which were the mirror images of each other, with seating on both sides of them, so that the actors were surrounded by the audience. You can see one part of the stage in these photographs of scenes from the play.

The space between the two parts of the stage also became a prop in itself; in one scene for example, it became the river flowing fhrough the village of Haleyur.

The story was about the marriageable daughter of a Joyisharu (astrologer) who lives in the remote village of Haleyur (It was called Holeyur or town-on-the-river, but after the river was dammed and the Hole disappeared, and the youngsters, including Shastri’s two sons, went off to Bangalore to work, it became Haleyur or old-town.) The astrologer and his orphaned nephew Kittu think about the marriage of Bhame, his daughter. The astrologer’s two sons and their wives, who live in Bangalore, arrive for their annual visit, and bring the gifts of a mobile and a laptop, and introduce the others to the Internet. This becomes a tool to advertise for a groom across the world, and ulitmately, five prospective grooms from five different countries…China, South Africa, Russia, America, and Switzerland….land up for the Swayamvara (groom-choosing by a bride) ceremony. What ultimately happens forms the rest of the story.

The acting by the cast was really excellent, as were the costumes and beautiful use of props and slides projected on the screens behind the audience, to depict various settings. Though Bhame did fumble her lines often, for the most part, the dialogue was completely natural and one had the feeling of watching ordinary people interact.

The laptop was used both in the script and in the production, to great effect, and this is how the interval was announced:

The music by both male and female groups was very melodious, with the actor assaying the role of the astrologer (Sripathi Manjanabailu) himself singing extremely well, and chanting Sanskrit slokas. The music really added a lot to the appeal of the play.

The length of two and a half hours was indeed a little too long, especially when the newspaper had said the play would begin at 6.15 pm and it actually began closer to 7 pm…but it was still well worth watching, and since the play is running both tomorrow and the day after (12 and 13 September) at H N Kalakshetra, I can heartily recommend it to Kannada theatre-goers. Yes, for the next two days, they will have to choose between this and the Kannada drama festival at Ranga Shankara…!