As the city is gearing up for the weeklong Bengaluru International Film Festival (Biffes) from Thursday, it is all set for a mega theatre event. The 8th Theatre Olympics, organised by the National School of Drama (NSD) along with the Department of Kannada and Culture, will be held for 15 days here from Tuesday.

This is for the first time the country is hosting the largest international theatre festival, and Bengaluru is one of the co-hosts. Plays will be staged at Ravindra Kalakshetra and at Kalagrama, Mallathahalli Road, Jnana Bharati campus, from 7 p.m. till March 6.

The event will provide people of the State a chance to watch 24 stimulating world-class performances, including six specially invited plays from renowned theatre maestros — Kabeer (Shekhar Sen), Esranga Rod (Pranjal Saikia), Madaiah the Cobbler (Ramaswamy Prasanna), Gunamukha (C. Basavalingaiah), Parindey(Satish Anand), Krapp’s Last Tape (Jaroslaw Fret, Poland) — and international productions The Method of National Constellations (Michal Stankiewicz), Women of Passion, Women of Greece (Tatiana Ligari, Greece), and Arrived(Adrian Schvarzstein, Lithuania).

The other plays that will be staged include Kuthirai Muttai (Sanmugaraja), Karnabharam (Chandradasan), Abayab (Nebakumar Banarjee), Allasani Peddana(Akella), Jathegiruvanu Chandra (Hulugappa Kattimani), Actress Are Not Allowed (V. Arumugham), Moment Just Before (Liju Krishna), Laagi Chhute Na(Veena Sharma), Mahabharath (Anurupa Roy), Prof. Kelfa’s Factory (Ranhang Choudhury), Tansen (Govind Singh Yadav), Dhaubar Ratani (Bidyut Kr. Nath), and Antariksha Sanchar (Jayalakshmi Eshwar), Indur O Manushi (Bebashis Biswas), and Naganandam (Kavalam Padmanabhan).

The 8th edition of Theatre Olympics, according to C. Basavalingaiah, director of NSD Bengaluru chapter, is “a celebration of universal friendship and human values by showcasing theatre traditions of India and the world. It is an attempt to bridge the borders across countries through the call of theatre and engage in creating a global village.”

Over 450 performances

The Theatre Olympics, which opened in Delhi on Saturday, will span 17 Indian cities with over 450 performances, seminars, and youth forums in which 25,000 artistes from 31 countries will participate, said Mr. Basavalingaiah.

The festival, spread over 51 days, will be held in cities including Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Imphal, Varanasi, Chandigarh, and Thiruvananthapuram.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / February 18th, 2018