Friday, February 01, 2019
Shakespeare From Iran, And Other Radical Possibilities At The Kerala Theatre Festival
The Theatre Times: Water puppets celebrating rich agrarian lore, women lost in an absurd abyss of role-playing, the fairy-infested woodlands of Athens, a semi-autobiographical sketch of an icon, and Kalidasa with a twist. Despite the shoe-string budget, the lineup for the 11th International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) is tasteful and exciting, an event promising radical possibilities. Kicking off on January 20 and running through the week, this edition has only 13 plays, each handpicked by the three festival directors Arundhati Nag, M.K. Raina and Kumara Varma.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The Kerala Theater Festival seems like an interesting mod-podge of genres, folklore and other aspects of culture. One of the festival directors even commented on how they were unable to decide on a central theme, since the repertoire represented so much. While reading the lineup one of the more interesting features is the Vietnamese water puppets. If you have ever come across a video of these puppets while deep diving youtube, it's definitely interesting to watch. I would love to see a performance in real life, because watching it on the internet sometimes can only make me think of something like the water ride It's a Small World water ride at Disney Land. However, these water puppets are quite beautiful and definitely are something very specific to the culture (like you don't see it at more Western theater festivals). It is also interesting to see classic titles like Midsummer Night's Dream, which they reimagined to fit in with the values of the festival. While there is no way for me to go visit this festival, it does seem like a brilliant meeting place of some of the best theatrical contemporary works from that part of the world.
Post a Comment