Rangayana's Shakespearean pageant concludes with big crowds

Shakespeare-theme based six-day theatre extravaganza organised by the Karnataka theatre repertory ‘Rangayana’ concluded on Sunday at Kala Mandira in Mysuru.

‘Bahuroopi-2015’ drew big crowds particularly in the evenings as besides Shakeshpeare’s plays a number of folk and other attractions were offered to the lovers of stage art and craft. In all, 11 plays were staged or experimented with, in two auditoria, in about four languages.

‘Bahuroopi’ is a national theatre festival that is increasingly gaining in popularity by the year.

National-level, and state-level theatre troupes present a variety of plays. Many of them are of social relevance, sometimes with bold depiction of the present day affairs. Hence, it has become a festival that offers variety in plays to firmly establish the theatre movement in the state as well as in the country, earning praise from those associated with the movement.

Dedicated to William Shakespeare, who continues to dominate international theatre with his ever-lasting plays, on his 450th birth anniversary, Bahuroopi sought to analyse him as a multi-faced writer of contemporary value. The two-day seminar viewed his creativity in the context of his influence on Kannada.

Five Shakespearean plays – three in Kannada, and one each in Rajasthani and Assamese – were staged at the Kala Mandira. Besides screening his films, an exhibition of posters of his dramas brought out the various dimensions of his contributions to the stage as well as to the global literary world.

Bahuroopi-2015 was inaugurated on January 13 by renowned theatre actor and producer Naseeruddin Shah who referred to the theatre’s ever-lasting impression, and said that Indian theatre is not dead, despite TV’s influence. Instead, it would grow strong. Shah himself presented a rendition of Vikram Seth’s “Beastly Tales’ to a packed auditorium with his wife and daughter.

Symposia, street plays, film shows, folk festival, handicrafts exhibition by a host of artistes, a variety of rural and urban eatables, painting and book exhibition and other programmes drew big crowds. About 75 stalls had been set up. Well-known theatre artiste Arundhati Nag delivered the concluding address yesterday.

Happy over the success of the annual festival, Rangayana Director H.Janardhan (Jenny) said the efforts were ‘fruitful’ thanks to the co-operation of all people involved in the theatre movement and general public. “The participation of the famous producer-director Shah gave a new dimension to ‘Bahuroopi’, he told Business Standard today. His estimate of visitors to the six-day festival was around 1 million.

“We chose Shakespeare as the festival theme because his plays have contemporary value,” he said, adding: “We want to experiment more with new ideas. It is also the responsibility of Rangayana to give a new direction to the movement to make it more popular and dynamic.” He said, it was his desire to take Rangayana onto the international stage by taking troupes abroad where NRI Kannadigas could associate with it.