Hindi
■ Head for some bright and colourful String Puppet theatre -- Raajasuya Yaaga at Dhaatu Centre For Sharing Life Skills & Tradition on October 22, 3944/F, 17th D Cross, 4th Main Banashankari 2nd Stage
■ Piya Behrupiya (Twelfth Night) will staged at Ranga Shankara on October 27 and 28. Atul Kumar’s adaptation of Twelfth Night is a musical comedy, and is a throwback to the Nautanki-style of performance. Tom Bird, the Festival Director of the recently concluded Globe to Globe Festival at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, commented that this play would go down as one of the most delightful comedies ever performed at Globe and called Atul Kumar “a genius”. The play dazzles in all departments - brilliant direction, excellent performances, vibrant costumes and music that fills the heart.
■ Catch Lamakaan, a Hindi drama that explores why three men visit a park, on October 28. The play tells us that fretful men don’t go to a park these days. You can only find them in the park corners in rundown or funky little pubs, where they sit and dunk beers or neat whiskey shots to feel better. At least till the next morning. Well, almost all men do that. But some men still go to a park. They prefer an isolated park bench in the shade of a tree. Some sit and read a book, some take a power nap and others fix their eyes on something exotic to find peace of mind.
English
■ Catch The Seussification Of Romeo and Juliet, a whimsical and madly funny reinvention of Shakespeare’s love story, without all the tragedy at Ranga Shankara on October 23 and 24. Directed by Judith Roby Bidapa, the play comes with fanciful costumes, rhymed couplets and creative wordplay.
■ Catch the screening of Maqbool at Ranga Shankara on October 30. Maqbool, a 2004 Indian film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starring Pankaj Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Tabu and Masumeh Makhija is an adaptation of the play Macbeth by Shakespeare. The plot of the film faithfully follows that of Macbeth with regard to events, and characterisation. The film did not perform remarkably at the box office, but won director Vishal Bhardwaj international acclaim. Apart from directing it, he had also composed the background score and songs for the film. Bhardwaj then moved on to adapting William Shakespeare’s Othello in his 2006 film Omkara which won him commercial as well as critical success. The critical success of which, was responsible for winning Francis Ford Coppola’s attention.
■ Catch The Good Doctor on October 27 at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore. For hundreds of years we have been entertained in one way or another by millions of stories from all around the world. Now, watch as the Americans, Russians, French and the Indians unite to entertain you by simply taking you to the source. The best writers have often paid homage to other literary giants in some form. One of our favourites, Neil Simon pays his, to one of the best - Anton Chekov. Chekov, known as The Good Literary Doctor, is represented by Simon in a most unique fashion. Paying the devil his due, we show you a rare peek into the minds of: A mad man, a genius, a romantic, a humanitarian, a dreamer, a sadist, a voice of authority and the very question of innocent intrigue; except they’re all the same person!
Journey with us as we seek to unfold the gripping (mis) adventures of a writer’s best friend and his arch nemesis - his imagination. Eleven eccentricities, formed as stories, showing a myriad of human emotions bound together by the single thread source: The writer’s perception of our realities. Let Barking Dog entertains you for an evening as the writer combats his own chaos.
Kannada
■ Get mesmermised with Rasalok - Spellbinding Miniature Theatre at Bimba The Art Hut 42, Ratna Vilas Road, Basavanagudi
■ Catch a Kannada play Jokumaraswamy, directed by B V Karanth on October 25 at Ranga Shankara. The play is about a bully, anostentatious zamindar, called Gowda (T S Girish), who is keen on keeping superstition, fear and illiteracy intact in his village. He has a roving eye and does not spare any woman. He woos Ningi (Nandini Murthy) for six months, before being overpowered by Gurya (Pavan). However the reality, denied by him, yet obvious to all is his impotency.
■ Kuberanigenibeku, a Kannada play directed by Suresh Anagall and written by Moliere / Bhagavathi M will be staged by Ranga Shankara on October 26. Kuberanigenirabeku is a story about an old miserly man called Sahukaara Kuberappa and his children Sudhamani and Rajashekara who scheme against their own father to get married to the people they love, Gopali and Veena Saraswathi respectively.
■ Hamlet and Lady Macbeth will be staged at Ranga Shankara on October 31. Translated by Ramachandra Deva and directed by Chidambara Rao Jambe, the play will be performed by two of Kannada theatre’s leading performers, Srinivasa Prabhu and Laxmi Chandrasekhar .
■ Take your little ones for a fantasy play in Kannada. Narnia will be staged at Sankula 3G Theatre on October 26 at K H KalaSoudha. The story is based on the novel The Magical Wardrobe by C S Lewis. There are various interesting reasons to stage Narnia as a play. The nature of the story builds curiosity and gives most perspective challenges to the theatre people so as to bring their creative talents on stage.
If it had merely been a fantasy play, it would have probably not been that interesting. But the play humorously unfolds into wider experiences of human relationships, frustration in human-nature relationships, a man’s life’s irony knowingly or unknowingly being victimised by the cruel system and many more. Though the play has several characters, dances, lighting effects, rich costumes, beautiful choreography, and a detailed set design etc, it does not affect the subject intention.
■ Catch a satirical play titled Achanak that depicts the trials an Indian family living abroad faces on October 27 at K H KalaSoudha. Achanak is a satire play that revolves around how an Indian family, settled abroad, suddenly faces troubles regarding an anti-social incident happening in their house. The unknowing fear and helplessness of human beings, presented in a comic way makes the audiences enjoy the show.