Thrissur: The tenth edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) will be held here from January 20 to 29. The theme of this year’s fest is ‘the theatre of the marginalised’.
As a prelude to ITFoK, which is the only international theatre fest in the country, chairperson of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, KPAC Lalitha hoisted the flag of the fest at the Akademi on Sunday.
There will be a total of 16 foreign plays in the fest which will focus on the issue of displacement, refugees, Islamophobia among other themes.
There will be 11 Indian plays and five Malayalam plays at the fest. The play Voicelessness from Iran will be the inaugural play.
Another important play at the fest will be Palestine Year Zero written and directed by Einat Weizman. The director of the play is from Israel, but she has taken a pro-Palestine stand in her plays.
The Regional Theater, Palace Ground, Jawahar Balabhavan, Nattya-graham and Bharath Murali Theatre in the Akademi campus among other places will be the venues of the fest which has been held annually in Thrissur for the past nine years.
“The Akademi will stage as many as eight Malayalam plays in different places in Thrissur and at Pattambi in Palakkad in the run up to the fest. As a part of it, the first play Padachonte Choru was staged in Kerala Sahithya Akademi in Thrissur on Saturday,” said Sangeetha Nataka Akademi secretary N. Radhakrishnan Nair.
The directors of the fest will be well-known theatre personalities M.K. Raina from Delhi, Rajeev Krishnan from Tamil Nadu and S. Sunil from Kerala.
The participation of more female directors as compared to previous years will be another attraction of the fest.
Booking for only 30 per cent of tickets at the fest has begun on the official site of the fest on Saturday.
The foreign production at ITFoK are Bad City (Poland), Borderline (UK), Love and Life (Sri Lanka), Manus (Iran), Mundo Mozart (Chile), My Body Welsh (UK), Palestine, Year Zero (Israel), Silence Poland), Still in Paradise (Switzerland), The Green-man (Spain), The Lull-aby’s Power (Georgia), The Malayman and his Chinese Father (Singa-pore), Voicelessness (Ira-n), Walk: South Africa (South Africa), Womb of Fire (South Africa) and Zigzig (Belgium / Egypt)
The Indian plays at the fest are Akshayambara (Bangalore), Khol Do (Delhi), Man of the Heart (Kolkata), Nerves (Surjit Nongmeikapam / Mani-pur), Nidrawathwam (Pondicherry), Notes on Chai (Mumbai), Outcaste (Patna), Queensize (Cont-emporary Dance / Mand-eep Raikhy / Sandbox Collective, Bangalore), Red Light Express (Mum-bai), Samasajswasthya (Pune) and Say, What? (Mumbai).
The Malayalam plays are Ekantham, Marana Match, Randu Muri, Adukkala, Thinna, Transformation and Uratti .
