Samashti, a Kannada amateur theatre group is all set to enthrall the audience by presenting two comedy plays. Pramilarjuneeyam is a Kannada adoption of Shakespeare’s comedy A Mid Summer Nights Dream directed by Ninasam graduate Manjunath L Badiger to be played at Rangashankara on February 7, 2013. The other play will be Miss Sadarame, a story which humoursly criticises the present social situations, directed by Manjunath L. Badiger to played on February 8, 2013.
In Pramilarjuneeyam, Jayantha and Vasantha both crave for Kairave but she only loves Jayantha. On the other hand, Kairave’s father wants Vasantha as his son-in-law. Padmini's unreturned love burns for Vasantha. Kairave and Jayantha plan to flee away from the city under cover of darkness but are pursued by an enraged Vasantha (who is himself pursued by an enraptured Padmini). In the forest, unbeknownst to the mortals, Manmatha and Rathi are having a spat over a servant boy. The plot twists up when Manmatha’s head mischief-maker, Ashuga, runs loose with a flower which causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Throw in a group of labourers preparing a play for the Arjuna and Pramila’s wedding (one of whom is given a donkey’s head by Ashuga) and the complications become fantastically funny.
In the other play Miss Sadarame, theatre person K.V.Subbanna improvised the story of Sadarame as Miss. Sadarame, which was originally scripted by Bellave Narahari Shastry. Samashti’s experiment on Sadarame is cleverly plotted and is different from the original story. The story revolves around an innocent middle class girl Sadarame. A prince gets attracted to her and wants to marry her. He sacrifices his kingdom to his greedy father-in-law and leaves the kingdom along with the newly wed Sadarame. Unknown to the new world, Sadarame was exposed to difficult circumstances from cunning travellers. By her extravagant intelligence, Sadarame manages to escape from all troubles and finally remains as Miss Sadarame.
Samashti is conducting the plays in order to discover the talents in aspirants, training them in all aspects of theatre and bringing them to the main stream of Kannada theatre. To achieve its objectives, Samashti have organised many free theatre camps.
It has also started a theatre School under the title ‘Sunday School of Drama’ specially designed for working people, and has presently stepped into the second year’s curriculum. For more information, contact Ravindra Poojary on 26582578 or 98451 63380.