Theatre is very much alive and bustling with raw vitality right here in our very own Kolkata. In fact, long after the so-called golden age of Bengal theatre is deemed to be over, Kolkata-based theatre group, 'Rangakarmee' is all set to set the stage on fire at the UNESCO-promoted International Theatre Festival - Theatre der Welt 2005 to be held in Stuttgart, Germany from July 3 to July 12, 2005.
Setting aside language barriers, the twenty-nine years young group, will stage three shows of its an hour and fifty minutes long Hindi play with German subtitles, 'Kashinama', staged seventy times thus far, mainly on different Kolkata stages. The play based on the story "Pande Kaun Kumati Lagi" written by Dr. Kashinath Singh and comprising of forty actors from the age of six to seventy, was awarded the Best Production of the Year Award, 2004 by the Paschim Banga Natya Academy, Government of West Bengal.
Narrating the story behind the origin of the play set in the backdrop of Varanasi, director, Usha Ganguly said, "I was slightly stirred by the story initially, but the idea of a play from it was obscure.’’ “Then I went through other stories by Dr. Singh and started getting my visions", she added. "Each ghat of Varanasi is a world in itself. I could see a whole nation on the ghats with all its diversities. It became our nation where every thing today is up for sale - honesty, values, morality, truth, heroism - anything man could lay his hands on. The question that stood up", she noted,” was how are we going to save ourselves from this consumerist onslaught? Where is this greed for consumerist onslaught going to end? What is the result of this change? In trying to find answers to these questions I created a new form which is essential for each play to give it novelty. And a fresh team of fifty energetic and vibrant boys and girls spent months and months in rehearsals to bring perfection to the choreography. After eight months of painful excitement, the play 'Kashinama' was finally born." She was visibly inspired by her own creation.
In the forthcoming international festival being held every three years since 1981, the play happens to be the sole representative of the theatrical form as practised in India. In fact, the entire onus of Asia falls on Ganguly's 'Kashinama', it being also the only play to be selected from Asia for this edition of the festival. At Stuttgart, it will brush shoulders with productions from England, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, USA and still others.
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