Opening Act

However,this is not the only musical in this festival. Out of the 12 plays which are scheduled to premiere during Centrestage,Aaj Rang Hai,Life Through the Songs We Like and Meera,too,will have their narratives peppered with musical elements. For Aaj Rang Hai,a group of six qawwals from Lucknow will render Amir Khusrau’s poetry on stage. The play’s co-director Purva Naresh brings together the beauty of Sufism and a love story set in a village in Madhya Pradesh. Though most of the qawwals have a free-flowing style,Naresh who has worked with them earlier,has convinced them to follow the play’s structure. Life Through The Songs We Like has director-actor Delna Mody singing popular numbers as 17-year-old Chelsea D’Souza plays the piano.

However,it’s not musicals which make this festival special. Though NCPA,a multi-venue,multi-purpose cultural centre was built in 1969,it has not had a dedicated theatre festival till date. After Deepa Gahlot,its head of programming,theatre and films,came on board in May this year,she started conceptualising this festival. “The 10-day event will host different kinds of plays in four languages— English,Hindi,Marathi and Gujarati,” she says. The festival features three English plays,The Interview,Life Through the Songs We Like and Rebecca; Chakra,a play in Gibberish; multilingual Oedipus Rex by Sophocles; Punasha Honeymoon and Tichee Satra Prakarne in Marathi and Kareena Pachhi Kon? and Meera in Gujarati. There is also Haath Ka Aya?…Shunya,which Manav Kaul has written specially for the festival.

With such a line-up of plays,Gahlot hopes the festival will expose the South Mumbai audience,who hardly travel to the suburbs for theatre entertainment,to a wider variety of plays that the city offers. This is echoed by Mody. “We needed such a festival to make use of the space that NCPA offers,” she adds.

Apart from the 12 new plays,the festival will also present a series of workshops and free-for-all performance at its Sunken Garden. Makrand Deshpande is slated to do a storytelling on November 27. On the following days,Avan Patel will organise a reading of Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya,Seema Raj will present a clown act titled Hoooo La La La and Manoj Shah will do short skits called Wassup…Chatur!. The garden,however,is likely to be transformed into a magical land when Danish Hussain and Mohammad Farooqi narrate tales of fantasy in Dastangoi.

If Mumbai’s theatre lovers crave more drama,then there is Jana Natya Manch’s Sarkash Festival coming up in the first week of December at Prithvi Theatre,followed by Thespo 12.