The country’s oldest English theatre company, The Madras Players perform Water, an English translation of Komal Swaminathan’s ‘Thaneer Thaneer’.
Shakti-k-Koothu. The show, which has had a successful tour of France, uses dance with couplets from Thirukkural of the Sangam era, poems of nationalist poet Subramania Bharathi and her own lyrics to explore the continued disrobing of Draupadi through wars, exploitation of nature, and crimes against women. English theatre has had an emphatic presence in the city since 1955 when the country’s oldest English theatre company, The Madras Players, was formed here. Pioneering in its approach to Indian writing, The Madras Players led the country in staging Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana and Yayati in the 1960s. It was the first to adapt novels, too, with Aruna Ganesh Ram staging RK Narayan’s Swami and Friends. Bestselling author Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone was first dramatised and presented by Nikhila Kesavan and, along with adaptations of Manu Joseph’s Serious Men and Pakistani author Shandana Minhas’ Tunnel Vision, has found country-wide acclaim. Regional Indian writing also finds easy dialogue in the English translations of Madras Players. It recently produced well-known Tamil novelist Komal Swaminathan’s much-acclaimed novel, Thaneer Thaneer (Water), which had already been adapted into a national award winning movie. PC Ramakrishna, a longstanding member of
The Madras Players and the director of Water, says: “With Water, we went to mofussil areas as well as sabha audiences, so that epitomises our thrust in theatre work today. Not too many groups are able to access or feel comfortable with Indian writing the way we do”. This English theatre tradition fosters young groups like Crea Shakti, ASAP, Stray Factory, Evam, StageFright, Boardwalkers and Masquerade which experiment with formats and genres to bring in discerning crowds. Short plays of 10 minutes, standup acts, musicals and comedies, pantomimes and heady collaborations for staging Agatha Christie, Shakespeare or the Orwellian Animal Farm keep the adrenaline pumping in theatres like Music Academy, Museum Theatre, Sir Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, Alliance Francaise, Rani Seethai Hall and Sivagami Pethachi, almost every fortnight. The arena of theatre in Chennai pulsates with energy; apart from a stream of Hindi plays coming down from different cities, theatre workshops are a regular feature in schools and colleges. Patronage for theatre is evolving across different audience segments from the youth and the elite to corporate houses, all providing the much-needed elixir for continued curtain calls and standing ovations.
Sangeet Natak Akademi winner, writer and director Na Muthuswamy revived the folk art of Therukoothu in the 1960s. Performances by his 31-year-old group, the Koothup-pattarai, are very popular.
Best of Chennai Vol 2
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