Theatre director Prasanna Ramaswamy is all set to stage her next project Lotus Leaves, Water Words at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Auditorium on Sunday. The presentation will focus on water and the other elements in a reference framework. “Last year I had worked with the flow of the river Kaveri as a recurrent motif through Silappadikaram to Alwar poetry to Sayavanam. This year, the flow of water has become the motif in itself. And this is to look at its sluggishness caused by environmental damage,” says Prasanna.
So while the presentation will raise some pertinent questions relating to environmental pollution and ecological imbalance, Prasanna tells us that it will go on to evoke the beauty and power of water.
“The performance begins with the statement on the awareness of the elements through a conversation between Apollonius and Iarchas from Book 3 of Philastratus, goes on to evoke the beauty and power of water from the community text Rig Veda, celebrates it in performing tradition aka dance, with a composition from the 18th century. It then leaps on to Cheran Rudramurthy’s ‘Irangal Paa’, a poet whose words I have been working on,” she tells us.
The source text in the presentation is by Muranchiyur Mudinaganar (Purananuru), Philastratus, Cheran, Kashinath Singh, Diane Ackerman, Rainer Maria Rilke, P Sainath, Clay Moldenhauer, Thanjai Nalvar, John F Kennedy, Prasanna Ramaswamy, and community texts by Rig Veda, Algonquin Song of the Stars.