Ranga Shankara’s theatre festival to open on Friday

When Ranga Shankara opened its doors to the nationalist successful October 2004, it decided to spell each out. “We started with a 45-day festival, and I became 5 years older successful those 45 days,” laughs Arundhati Nag, the laminitis of this iconic theatre abstraction successful Bengaluru. Of course, overmuch has changed successful the metropolis since it opened each those years ago. “The demography has changed. We person had 2 generations of audiences and artists turning over.” .

Ranga Shankara, successful her opinion, has go “a witnesser to Bengaluru and its maturation and a refuge to radical who don’t cognize wherever to go, who don’t person excessively galore friends successful the city.” And its yearly theatre festival, which continues to this day, is simply a “coming together” of each that the abstraction represents. “It is simply a toast to what the originative psyche of this state is,” says Arundhati, who is each geared up for the 21st variation of the festival. As portion of the event, which volition instrumentality spot crossed 2 weekends connected October 24, 25, 26, 31, and November 1, 5 unsocial plays volition beryllium staged. These plays, she says, collectively connection insights into “how youngsters are creating work” and “tell you what is going connected successful the minds of 5 important creators successful the country.”

The plays are antithetic from each other, “like chalk and cheese…not 1 genre,” says Arundhati, adding that the lineup this twelvemonth is simply a superior 1 that “ tells you what is going connected successful this country.” These see Kavan, an Ambedkarite opera directed by Abhishek Majumdar, focusing connected the inherent inequality successful India’s caste strategy and Something Like Truth, written by Shanta Gokhale and directed by Parna Pethe, which explores our narration with truth, state and justness done 4 almighty monologues. There is besides Neel Chaudhuri’s Aakhirkaar, inspired by stories from the publication Sum by David Eagleman; Saurabh Nayyar’s Naam Mein Ka Rakhwo Hai, a satire astir information and Kattala Neralu, a Kannada play, translated and directed by Venkatesh Prasad, which is based connected David Harrower’s Blackbird.

Also, dissimilar successful erstwhile editions of the festival, the curators person dispensed with having a chiseled theme, points retired Arundhati. Instead, “we conscionable thought we would liberate ourselves and look astir wholly free-minded,” the lone caveat being that they steered distant from fashionable work. The curatorial squad went looking for plays that “you would not find otherwise…that is cutting edge…dares to beryllium different,” she says. “We bring plays that others would not call.”

The Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival 2025 volition beryllium held astatine Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar, Bengaluru, from 24 October to 1 November, spanning 2 weekends. For much information, email programming@rangashankara.in. Tickets are disposable connected BookMyShow and astatine the container office.