Space for More

The Community Theatre Workshop is back on stage with Kashi Ki Lanka,a play that takes us to Lanka,a small area situated between Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Kashi Ghat,and focuses on the changing face of urbanisation.

The play shows that how in the process of materialistic development,we are losing the ability and need to communicate with each other. The addas,the physical spaces where people used to congregate and indulge in social discourse have turned into ‘mall culture’ where consumerism becomes the deciding factor of the way of life. Based on a story titled Lanka Banke Char Diyara penned by eminent Hindi writer Kashinath Singh and directed by P Chandrashekhar,the play begins when a madari’s show is stopped by the police as it is considered a threat to the security of the VIPs. The madari,however,continues the show despite humiliation and narrates the story of the addas of Lanka. “This story is about people of Lanka student leaders,local intellectuals,shopkeepers and common people in the street who indulge themselves in addas — places where people usually sit together and gossip about political and social issues,” explains the director. The student leaders represent a spectrum of different ideologies. They give public speeches,indulge in mudslinging but never refrain from the social dialogue,which has been the hallmark of intellectual activity in Banaras. But the new commercial establishments end up removing these addas and with that the social dialogue vanishes. The entire story is narrated by a character named Dada Majumdar,a veteran of the addas,who laments about the past and comments about the hijacking of our “collective soul” by the market economy.

The play will be staged at Punjab Kala Bhawan,Sector 16 on Novermber 3,at 6.30 pm