"Performing Women": a one-of-its-kind theatre collaboration

By Madhur Tankha - The Hindu - New Delhi,India

Thursday, January 4, 2007

As part of the ninth edition of the National School of Drama's Bharat Rang Mahotsav, theatre that has come about due to collaboration among India, Iran, Uzbekistan and Japan will be staged at Abhimanch Auditorium in Bahawalpur House here this coming Sunday and Monday.

Titled "Performing Women Medea, Jocasta and Clytemnestra", the one-of-its-kind theatre collaboration will not show "realistic" plays but experimental ones. Based on Greek tragedy, the storyline will be presented in a unique way by each director with the aim of exploring the concept of woman as a metaphor for key concepts.

Each country will have its own cast too.

Produced by the Japan Foundation, the theatre collaboration will show India's Abhilash Pillai, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, staging theatre. He will work around the Clytemnestra character from "The Trojan Women". His works are drawn from a wide array of materials ranging from the classical to the modern yet presented in an aesthetic style. Music will be presented by Sankar Venkateswaran.

Iran's Mohammad Aghebati, who graduated from the Iran Film and Theatre University majoring in direction, will work on the Jocasta character from "Oedipus Rex" for his theatrical presentation.

In 2006, Aghebati founded the Live (Sun) II Theatre Group and performed his new work, "Only God Has the Right to Wake Up", at the International Freiburg Theatre Festival in Germany. His credits include William Butler Yeats' "Purgatory", Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "The Maids" and "Kiss You and Tears" based on Czech freedom activist Vaclav Havel's Letters to Olga. In fact, "Kiss You and Tears" was performed in several cities in Germany in 2004-2005.

Uzbekistan's Ovlyakuli Khojakuli will work on the Medea character by Euripedes. Born in Turkmenistan, Khojakuli studied at Tashkent State Art Institute.

He is one of the few directors who incorporate Central Asian traditions in modern ways, such as the aesthetics of Sufism and the traditional storytelling to create pieces that overflow with primary beauty.

His productions have attracted international attention such as Raksu S'amo ("Sky Dance") by Alisher Navoi and Shakespeare's King Lear and Language of the Birds by A. Navoi.