This is the year for theatre in India. The Theatre Olympics 2018, being held in cities across the country from February 17 to April 8, provides the much-needed boost to theatre in the country. With plays from all over the world being staged here, the event also gives a fillip to regional theatre. One such regional production that received a lot of appreciation is Moment Just Before Death produced by Saga Entertainment and directed by Liju Krishna.
The play, which was staged recently at Kalagramam in Bengaluru, pivots around an old man, whose body sweeps through evanescent memories in the endless wait for his own coffin. “The coffin is the seminal image that gives life to events and characters,” says Liju. The old man refers to himself as the son of a toddy tapper and he abruptly leaves toddy tapping to start building his coffin. The play attempts to represent graphically the old man’s views to the spectators when he attempts to reorganise his layers of reveries lauded with love, the gruesome realities of life and his thoughts.
He adds, “The girl with flowers, the old man as a florist in the cemetery and the cult of Muthappan intensify the tragic posture of humanity in the bleak and macabre backdrop of the play.” Designed and written by Liju, the play was selected from over 300 plays all over India for the prestigious Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards 2014 (META) with a nomination in six categories. The play won two awards including Best Actor in Leading Role (Male) & Best Designer. The play has also been staged at various international and national theatre festivals all over India.
Liju says, “I debut in theatre attempts to experiment with the space and language in an unconventional and radical way.” The Theatre Olympics was established in 1993 in Delphi, Greece, as the first international theatre festival. With the tagline ‘Crossing Millennia’, the 8th edition of the festival is an attempt to connect the cultural past with the present and future, bringing the richness and diversity of theatre heritage to the experiments and research of contemporary theatre.
