HYDERABAD : This International Women’s Day, women are taking the centre stage, literally, with five plays voicing out women’s voices by staging plays from March 5 to 7 in the city. Bhoomika, Modern Theatre Festival by Women Directors 2019, is a set of five contemporary Telugu plays selected for the Women’s Theater Festival. Organised by the Department of Language and Culture, Government of Telangana and Telangana Theater Research Center, famous national theatre personalities are going to be a part of this festival.
Prominent Telugu actor and host of Naveena show, anchor Jhansi, who debuts as a director with her play Purusha Sooktam, says, “I am honoured that my play has been selected for this festival. I have written it and am directing the play. It’s my debut as a writer and director for theatre. I have chosen to address toxic masculinity and gender roles. Probably the first time that Telugu theatre is touching men’s rights. Actor Vamsee Chaganti of Happy Days and Vangaveeti movie is performing for the first time on stage. And I am going to play the woman’s role.”
The play, says Jhansi, asks some pertinent questions. When men and women are equal human beings, why do they have such a complex relationship? In that sense we are really unique species! Perhaps, we owe it to of our evolved brains!
Purusha Sooktam, based on a two-character plot, looks into deep core emotional issues between men and women with the hope to start a nuanced discussion on masculinity. The play intends to raise some pertinent questions on masculinity from a different perspective through the art form of theatre.
The play is a conversation between a man and woman and their respective masculine and feminine energies which are a part of every human being. The play emphasises on the emotional differences between both the genders and tries to focus on how important it is to have harmony between both the energies.
Some of the questions that the play intends to evoke in the mind of its audiences are: Why is it that women are more vocal than men about their issues while men don’t really talk about their issues? What is this conditioning that men undergo and what is the transformation that happens when they evolve from boys to men in society?
Purusha Sooktam would like to challenge toxic masculinity by asking: Can we unlearn gender roles and when we do, what happens, says the actor-director, who is currently also a wellness guru in the city.
Written by Jhansi and K.P. Vattayam, the Telugu play will be staged at 6 pm on March 7 at Ravindra Bharathi Hyderabad.
Among the other plays are Anveshana, a suspense thriller, by Nishumbita, written by Nahushi Kavuri, concept and direction by Soumya Ram Holagundi. The other is Mooriya, directed by Dr Bh Padma Priya based on a play by John Milington Sing. This is about an old woman, Mooriya, not losing her spirit despite facing disasters and miseries in her life. Aadadi, directed by Swathi Raman and written by Dr Rammohan Holagundi, is about gender rights while Chitra Naleeyam is by R Sunayana Jayashree, which goes back to the days of Mahabharata and discusses the social construct of marriage. The plays will be staged from March 5-7.
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Twitter- @mkalanidhi