Six solo acts on stage

Abhinethri Festival by Kriyative Theatre Trust will present three plays by theatre artiste Laxmi Chandrashekar, this weekend.

The plays will be staged in Kannada and English over three days. Laxmi, who has been performing solo acts for 25 years, has translated and adapted the works.

On January 12, ‘Singarevva Mattu Aramane’ and its English version ‘Singarevva and the Palace’, a play based on Chandrashekhara Kambara’s namesake play, will be staged. “It is about a woman’s frustration and helplessness, being denied the right to motherhood, how she faces exploitation by all the men in her life and the way she asserts herself in the end,” says Laxmi. The play will be directed by Soumya Varma.

The second play, ‘Shakespearana Srimathi’/ ‘Shakespeare’s Wife’, written by Uday Itagi will be staged on January 13. It has been adapted from Robert Nay’s work based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. “I have taken inputs from feminist writer Germaine Greer’s work ‘Shakespeare’s Wife’, and from other sources to create this play. It depicts the Bard’s wife, Anne Hathaway, in a different light,” she explains. “This play looks at Anne as
a committed and strong woman, and a loyal wife”, she elaborates. The play will be directed by Vishwaraj Patil.

The final play provides insights into the Kodava community and has been directed by Soumya. ‘Kittalemane Kaveri’/‘Kaveri of Kittale Villa’, an adaptation of ‘Emily of Emerald Hill’, an English play written by Singaporean writer Stella Kon, will be staged on January 14. “I had lived in Singapore for a while, and I got rights from the writer to stage and adapt it accordingly. Set in the Kodava community now, the play captures their culture, food, customs, and costumes,” she tells Metrolife.

From January 12 to 14, Kannada plays will be staged at 3.30 pm and English plays at 7 pm, at B P Wadia Sabhangana, Indian Institute of World Culture, Basavanagudi. Tickets online.