The metro cities are often considered the hubs of theatre, but the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) proves that theatre is indeed evolving across the country. Touted as one of the most prestigious award ceremonies for theatre, the META Festival pretty much sets the ball rolling for theatre groups each year. At the 14th META awards held this week in Delhi, one of India’s most progressive playwrights—Mahesh Elkunchwar—was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. Amidst 10 shortlisted plays, Andha Yug (Hindi adaptation) directed by Joy Maisnam (from Manipur), bagged the top prize.
This year’s plays were selected from cities such as Jabalpur, Imphal, Puducherry, Vadodara, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kochi and Malappuram. Talking about the selection, Vikram Phukan—one of META’s committee members—says, “In the last decade or so, social media has allowed the lay audience to become aware of theatre. It’s a great thing for practitioners who are looking to create original content. There’s a lot of experimentation with technology, as well as treatment. What’s exciting about the entries and definitely about the nominated plays is that many of them are collective projects, where it’s evident that several creative energies have come together and it’s not a product or a vision of one single person.”
The plays showcased were Agarbatti (Hindi and Bundeli from Jabalpur), for which Swati Dubey won the award for the best director. The play focused on caste, gender and class conflict, and politics in the aftermath of Phoolan Devi’s Behmai massacre. Two different adaptations of Andha Yug (in Gujarati from Vadodara and in Hindi from Imphal) set against the backdrop of the Mahabharata war and its deep-seated repercussions on humanity were staged.
Chandâla, Impure (Tamil) was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but set within the constructs of the Indian caste system. Chillara Samaram (Malayalam) chronicled a protest by common people against their town corporation which wanted to replace every small shop with glitzy malls and ban the use of coins. Kola (Kannada) was a strongly-written family drama set in rural Vidarbha which talked about relationships, aspirations, joys, sorrows and anger. Pulijanmam from Puducherry (Malayalam) was a reinterpretation of a classic text which questioned the morals of a society which had for long marginalised Dalits. And Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan (Hindustani) was a narrative-led performance depicting the characters’ dilemmas through innovative stage props and invited the audience on stage.
Theatrician Denzil Smith says, “This year, there was a healthy balance of traditional and contemporary theatre; a lot of creative stuff came from the north-east and southern region. Nowadays you can’t put labels to what is mainstream or what is regional theatre. The lines have all blurred. Theatre is evolving and while there is enough material inspired by the classics, there are also original scripts, lots of devised techniques and treatment, and the folk idiom is very prominent. The diversity within the country enriches its stagecraft.”
Speaking further about the award, he added, “Theatre practitioners aspire to it and it encourages them to bring out the best. The selection process is rigorous and the nominated plays are representative of what’s happening in the country.”