Theatre Fest’13 organised by the Rural Entrepreneurship for Art and Cultural Heritage (REACH) will begin in Dehradun from Saturday with noted actors expected to perform in various plays.
One of the plays to be staged, Tagore’s ‘Chandalika’ is based on a story from a Buddhist text and expresses the anguish of a girl, Prakriti, compelled to live on the edges of society as ‘Chandalika’- an untouchable.
She watches wistfully from the shadows as the world passes her by, denying her existence until one day arrives a Buddhist monk Ananda asking for ‘water’ which leads to events which awaken her awareness of her own inner self.
Written in 1933, this play remains as relevant today as it was then. Another play ‘Hum Mukhtara’ is based on the life of Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman from the impoverished village of Meerwala in Pakistan who was raped in 2002, a crime ordered by a local clan known as the Mastoi, as the punishment for indiscretions allegedly committed by the woman's brother.
Although custom would expect her to commit suicide after being raped, she pursued the case up to the Supreme Court which acquitted the six accused in 2011. The play is based on Mukhtar’s life but it will not be an exact portrayal of her life.
Another play, Mahashweta Devi’s ‘Rudali’, somewhere in South Bihar a woman sees her family breaking up, poverty, hunger and desperation taking their toll, till she comes across an old friend now abandoned by her family.
The two form a partnership for survival and master an unusual profession, conducting the elaborate lamentation as part of the death ritual for the rich dead. ‘Maiyyat and Vama’ is a musical play based on a story revolving around a person belonging to a Dalit community who is converted into a Brahmin for just one day as a ritual in an Aurangabad village. The whole story is depicted through songs of Kabir.