Carnival Time

Three years ago,Prithvi Theatre organised a day-long carnival,where theatre personalities from the city presented short pieces. The format was well-relieved and when the theatre could not hold its annual festival for a couple of years,they made do with these intimate plays for an audience consisting of practitioners as well as theatre lovers. Some of the pieces,including Nothing Like Lear,went on to become full-fledged plays.

Though this year,Prithvi Theatre Festival is back with 15 productions,Sunday will be dedicated to the carnival. This will be divided into three parts. For the first one,titled Classics Redux,director Sunil Shanbag trawls through some of Indian theatre’s greatest contemporary classics seeking out female protagonists who confront love,longing,dignity and loneliness. Written by Sapan Saran,this will show how Girish Karnad,Vijay Tendulkar,Ravindranath Tagore,Mahesh Elkunchwar,Mohan Rakesh,Badal Sircar and Varsha Adalja place their protagonists in powerful dilemmas and hold a mirror to our lives.

The second segment of the carnival will focus on India’s linguistic heritage while the last one will bring together various theatre artistes who regularly perform at the Juhu theatre. Theatre actors and directors such as Nadira Babbar,Utkarsh Mazumdar and Danish Hussain will perform on Sunday.

The 14-day festival will end on Monday with Dear Liar,featuring Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah,which is a comedy of letters adapted from the correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell.

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