International Theatre Festival of Kerala says no to tribal street play

THRISSUR: Theatre personalities here slammed the decision of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) selection jury for not considering a tribal street play depicting life in remote hamlets of Attapadi that was well received at different theatre fests across Kerala. With the festival set to open on February 20, theatre director and actor K.V. Ganesh, based in Thrissur, registered his protest against the three-member curators committee consisting Malashree Hashmi, Anuradha Kapur, a former director of National School of Drama and Malayali Ramesh Varma for allegedly sidelining plays like Namadh Judah (Our Voice), regarding issues of child marriage and alcoholism in Attappadi and an anti-fascist play, which is a theatre adaptation of K.R. Meera’s short fiction Bhagavante Maranam.

Earlier, activist Mala Parvathi had expressed her concerns over Dalit discrimination citing the play of K.R. Ramesh not getting entry to the fest. “The fest which began in 2008 under the aegis of actor Bharath Murali was well conceived initially. Unfortunately in the following years, a section of theatre persons hijacked it to make it an elite event,” K.V. Ganesh said. He added that Shibu S. Kottaram associated with School of Drama in Thrissur shared similar views. “Voices that many theatre lovers were eagerly waiting to be part of ITFoK were not given their due and the theatre activists here are planning to stage Namadh Judah during the fest as a protest,” Ganesh said.

Speaking to this newspaper, N. Radhakrishnan Nair, secretary of the Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, the key organiser said, “We had one of the best experts in the selection process and the organisers gave the jury full freedom to select plays from about 147 applications across the globe and there was no attempt to interfere in selection. Akademi will give space to all plays and views and those who were denied chance at the fest need not feel dejected.”