CHENNAI: There were back-to back shows and the hall was packed — this is definitely saying something about Chennaiites’ love for theatre. To support and promote local theatre groups, Wandering Artists has introduced Theatre Puram, which is curated by Mathivanan Rajendran, founder, Stray Factory.
The theatre scene in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi is strong and this initiative is their bit to make Chennai a theatre destination. “This will be a space for all theatre artists to come together and showcase what Chennai can do. The focus is only on local theatre groups. There have been different kinds of shows in Chennai, and though theatre was predominant in the early days, we believe it has not yet been explored to the full potential,” he said, adding that this event will be held during the fourth weekend of every month.
Theatre Zero was the first group to inaugurate the celebration of plays with ‘Petti Kathaigal’. It had three plays and all were based on pettis (boxes) — Savapetti, Thathavin Petti and Rayil Petti. A host of actors kept the audience in splits, but the aim of Theatre Puram is not just conducting comical plays. “We want to bring out different flavours. It was Tamil theatres in May. Next month will be a set of English plays; we will also have monologues, immersive theatre and more. We want Chennaiites to aware of all different kinds of theatre,” said Mathivanan.
While there are umpteen opportunities for amateur artists, Theatre Puram will focus on getting new audiences than new talents. “Talents are aplenty and there are many places in the city that give them opportunities. But if amateur artists can come up with something different, we will surely include them as a part of Theatre Puram. But more than that, I feel we need more audiences to enjoy theatre,” he added.
Talking about plays that kick-started the whole concept, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, who directed all three plays and wrote Thathavin Petti and Rayil Petti said that a space like this makes them want to explore more. “There is no demarcation between the stage and the audience. In fact, after every show, the number of audience members kept increasing and we ended up with restricted space. This made us adapt and improvise,” she pointed out.
The artistes also are free to express themselves with any topic they like. Vinodhini wanted to keep it satirical while including the current political scenario in their dialogues. “I thought the audience will enjoy that and they did. Most of our plays are contemporary and experimental. I also believe that each character we portray on stage is a reflection of someone in the crowd,” she added.
Now that ‘Petti Kathaigal’ has got rave reviews, Vinodhini wants to take this package to different stages. “We have performed Rayil Petti under different names in various theatre shows. But Theatre Puram helped us push our limits and see how we can present different things under one theme. We will work more on the petti series and present it to audiences.”