Multilingual Theatre Fest Opens With Folk Flair
Xpression theatre fest opens with Telugu take on Don Quixote, delights first-time young viewers.
Hyderabad: A child from Balapur leaned forward in her seat and said, “It’s my first time watching theatre and I love it.” She was one of 25 children from the Jerusalem Covenant Church who travelled across the city to attend a theatre festival. Others came from schools, escorted by teachers. Some sat wide-eyed, others giggled — and for most, this was a luxury and a first.
That they stayed through an entire Telugu play drawn from Cervantes’ -Don Quixote- was no small feat, said Swapan Mondal, the director. “Keeping children still for one hour is a very tough job. But our actors did it. And the children enjoyed.”
The opening day of Xpression, the multilingual national-level theatre festival by Shudrka Hyderabad in collaboration with the department of language and culture, began with –Dora-, a Telugu reimagination of -Don Quixote- set to the rhythms and style of Telangana’s Oggu Katha. Mondal, who also founded the group, described it as an attempt to speak to local audiences through a familiar folk form. The performance, however, was met with a comment from one viewer who said that while the influence was evident, the style wasn’t preserved in full.
The festival was formally inaugurated after the first performance by Mamidi Harikrishna, director of the department of language and culture, who spoke about the role of theatre in a city like Hyderabad. “People of all religions and regions live here with harmony and mutual respect. Culture is what allows us to connect beyond borders. It’s what keeps us together.”
Sharing the stage was Prof. Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay from Jadavpur University, who will present a lecture on filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak in the coming days. Both were welcomed by Swapan Mondal and the Shudrka team.
The day ended with ‘Matir Jonno’, a Bengali play by Gorjoypur Saptarshi, based on Tagore’s ‘Dui Bigha Jomi’. The performers drew from the martial grammar of Purulia Chhau dance form and used its charged physicality to express loss and resistance. Tagore’s songs, stripped of orchestral flourish, were rendered in their raw form on dotara.
The choice gave the play an earthiness that shifted it away from the reverent tone that often surrounds Tagore. It brought the poet back to the field he wrote about and to the people, his work so often speaks of but rarely reaches in theatre halls.
‘Matir Jonno’ was the star performance of the night and received a standing ovation, even from those who did not comprehend the language. Xpression will continue through the weekend, with performances in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and a multilingual production, ‘Kolaj’. Two seminars and theatre workshops are also scheduled.
