Pune plays make it to Thespo theatre fest

The writer of the play, Chinmay Kulkarni, says, “It is based on a story written by a friend named Chetan Dange. He had written it nearly five years ago and it had got published in a Diwali ank (magazine) too. When we decided to do a play for Thespo, I tweaked the story a bit and turned it into the format of a play. We kept improvising till we performed for the selection.”

A humourous play set in 1970s, Hero revolves around a village boy who falls in love with a girl from his village. When he gets to know that she is a die-hard fan of actor Amitabh Bachchan, he starts imitating ‘the angry young man’. Along with two of his friends, he begins performing for people and slowly gains popularity. The high of success goes so much into his head that he not only forgets his friends but his ladylove too. What ensues is a story of coming-of-age against the desire to be larger than life. The play will be staged on December 10 (9 pm) at Prithvi Theatre and on December 12 (7 pm) at Godrej Theatre in NCPA.
A production of city-based theatre group named Theatre Dil Se, Chitthi is a light-hearted, poignant story of Manisha, an illiterate married woman trying to catch her husband having an affair. Her only clue is a handwritten letter from another woman. Could the power of the alphabet push Manisha to overcome her insecurities and go beyond her accustomed ways is what the play showcases. Written and directed by Apurva Bhilare, Chitthi will be performed on December 8 at 9 pm.

The newly-formed theatre group consists of alumni of city-based ILS Law college. “The idea came from a short story of famous Marathi author Vyankatesh Madgulkar. Last year, when our group was searching for a story for a play that we wanted to perform for Purushottam Karandak theatre competition, we came across this story and all of us loved it. Though the story was the inspiration, we came up with our own story and added scenes that were not there in the original story,” says Bhilare.

It is the 17th edition of Thespo, a drama festival for theatre artistes below the age of 25, held in Mumbai annually. To be held from December 7 to 13, the theme of this year’s festival is ‘Drama ka Dhamaaka’. The line-up for the festival includes 30 events that includes five plays, seven special events including international acts and collaborations, four platform performances, two fringe performances, 10 workshops and four live music acts.

Organized by QTP, under the aegis of Theatre Group Bombay, the festival will be held at three different venues this year – the iconic Prithvi Theatre, from where Thespo began its journey in 2008; the Hive, one of the city’s newest, hottest cultural hubs; and the Godrej Theatre, one of the most intimate auditoriums of NCPA.