SAMMY! (English)
August 30, 2005.
Time: 7:30 pm.
Duration: 2 hrs with Interval.
Writer: Pratap Sharma.
Director: Lillete Dubey.
Cast: Joy Sengupta (Mohan), Vijay Crishna (Mahatma), Neha Dubey (Kasturba) & others.

Sammy! (a word that broke an empire) is the incredible story of Mahatma Gandhi told by an ensemble cast in a modern and exciting style. Imbued with Gandhiji's hallmark humour and set against the most dramatic events of the Independence struggle, the play explores the conflicts of Mohan the realist and the irrepressible, idealistic Mahatma that lay within him. Their lively debates lead the story, highlighting Gandhiji's personal and political relationships and the extraordinary way he changed the life of everyone he came into contact with. For those who may be curious, like the writer Pratap Sharma was, regarding the title, it may be noted that it was a commonly used derogatory term of addressing Indians in apartheid Africa, being a corruption of the word, Swami.


BEEWION KA MADRESSA (Urdu)
August 31, 2005.
Time: 7:30 pm.
Duration: 2 hrs, 30 mins with Interval.
Adaptation based on Moliere's Ecole de Femmes.
Design and Direction: Dinesh Thakur.
Cast: Gargi Tripathi (Kammo), Atul Mathur (Sultan Ali), Dinesh Thakur (Haneef Mohammed) & others.

Should there be any doubt about Moliere's abiding popularity with Indian theatergoers, this play would be enough to dispel it- this is Ank's 824th show of Moliere's 14th century farce Ecole de Femmes. Haneef Mohammed did not marry, thanks to his belief that all women are dishonest frumps who cheat their husbands and take undue advantage of them. And then a chance meeting with a six-year-old innocent and beautiful Husnara gives him the most bizarre idea of rearing the little girl after his own fashion so that she can be his future wife! Time passes and as the girl turns sixteen, Haneef Mohammed makes plans for a grand wedding. But nature intervenes in the form of a young and handsome suitor and the event signals for the battle of wits to start.


TEEN PAISHANCHO TIATR (Konkani)
September 1, 2005.
Time: 2:30 pm.
Duration: 2 hrs 15 mins with Interval.
Adapted from Bertold Brecht's original THE THREEPENNY OPERA.
Director: Shridhar Kamat Bambolkar.
Cast: Vishwas Chari (Sutradhar No. 1/Abdudad/Bhataji), Manoj Chindarkar (Sutradhar No. 2/Shabudad/Priest), Shubhangi Barve (Apurbai) & others.

The play has elements of satire and comedy and is highly entertaining. Although the plot is entirely imaginary it also seems to be real at another level. The play can also be described as a musical, multi-cast, mob play. The idea to use a wide range of musical compositions is in sync with the diversity of language and the plurality of characters depicted by Brecht. But nonetheless the play has a recognizable local flavour that Indian audiences will be able to relate to.


KARNABHARAM (Sanskrit).
September 1, 2005.
Time: 7:30 pm.
Duration: 2 hrs 30 mins with Interval.
Writer: Mahakavi Bhasa.
Director: Kavalam Narayana Panikkar.
Cast: Gireesh V. (Karnan), Mohini Vinayan (Kunti), Gopinath P. (Shalyar) & others.

This is one of the rare offerings in this festival, being an original Sanskrit classic of Mahakavi Bhasa. In this classic work, Bhasa portrayed the downfall of the mighty epic hero Karna, projecting the inner conflict that develops within him when he enters Kurukshetra to wage a crucial battle with the Pandavas. Karna looks back at his past life at this late and fateful hour of trial, with his life hanging precariously in the balance. Bhasa has marvelously placed the two wars in context- the one that is raging all around Karna on the burning battlefield and the other invisible war that he is fighting with himself. Bhasa demonstrates, in a style reminiscent of classical Greek tragedy, how the eternal interaction of the elements of nature so often results in the downfall of man.