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A new theatre festival enters the calendar this year with an ambitious plan to give a leg up to professional theatre in the country and create new audiences.

A new theatre festival enters the calendar this year with an ambitious plan to give a leg up to professional theatre in the country and create new audiences. What it means for theatre lovers is a chance to watch plays from other cities. Theatre-in-Motion is spread lavishly over three months,from October 5 to December 29,and three cities.

Forty-eight plays,spread across 48 show nights,will be staged in Delhi,Mumbai and Kolkata. Mumbai produces a lot of comedy while Kolkata is dominated by serious theatre. A festival such as this enables people to know what is happening in theatre across the country, says theatre veteran Anant Mahapatra,whose Utkal Rangmanch Trust has started the festival.

Mumbai will host plays such as Chandalika,based on a Rabindranath Tagore classic,and Shamshan Mahabharat,which dissects the nature of Duryodhana,the central villain of the epic Mahabharata. The Kolkata audience can watch Ghalib in New Delhi and Yaar Bana Buddy,among others the former about poet Mirza Ghalibs visit to modern-day Delhi,while the latter is an exploration of friendship through the story of three youngsters. Delhi stage buffs can look forward to Mahua,The Old Man and The Sea an adaptation of Earnest Hemingways classic and Saku Bai a dramatic monologue by a domestic help. Mahua takes one into the tribal village of Bihabund that is falling prey to machines,mines and industrialisation. The protagonist,Birsa,struggles to fight for his land but his hunting expedition goes horribly wrong,bringing two neighbouring villages on the brink of a major conflict.

Other theatre persons who will be a part of this festival include Soumitra Chatterjee,Nadira Zaheer Babbar,Om Katare,Manoj Mitra,Lilette Dubey,Shernaz Patel and Mohan Agashe.

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