Public places in our lives tend to have a certain kind of crowd gravitating towards them. For example, while there is a fair amount of diversity in the people dining at an American fast food franchise, one can clearly distinguish the people one would find there from the crowd one expects to spot at an army recruitment drive. Likewise, there is a set kind of people that come to mind when one thinks of the drama-watching types. "Maya Bazaar" starts to establish its uniqueness right from this area. The crowds for the play remind one of guests at a large family event rather than average theatre-goers. For those of you unfamiliar with "Maya Bazaar", it is a legendary mythological Telugu movie released in the 1950s. The plot is a small chapter from the Mahabharatha that deals with Abhimanyu’s wedding. The play is a direct adaptation of the movie and is also in Telugu.

Once you step into the auditorium, the ambience hits your senses hard. The upper half of the performing area is completely covered with a satin curtain. The lower half is covered with a huge banner with a sequined border. It features Alamelu and Venkateshwara and in the background, and, you hear music that by now convinces you of being in a South Indian wedding.

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In an interview with Business Standard, Shabana Azmi makes a telling comment about the nature of characters in Broken Images.

The best feedback I got for this role was that the audience can’t make up their minds who the victim is and who the victimiser. I am pleased with that because Girish (Karnad) has built in enough ambiguity to make it a shifting equation.

She also talks of the unique predicament of rehearsing for this role, for which her sister-in-law Tanvi Azmi came to her rescue by playing the other part.

Read the full piece here: In her own image.

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The Guardian theatre blog has a interesting piece on theatre that seeks to be "different every night"

…there is a growing interest in theatre that embraces difference. Here, individual performances go further than being mere variations; not only is each a one-off event, but its status as such is made perceptible. You see the gaps deliberately left open for choice and chance, and accordingly you become aware of what else might have been.

The trend applies equally to theatre in India. At a smaller level, it exists in the actor-audience interaction in plays like Hamlet the Clown Prince or Five Grains of Sugar. The plot does not vary, the details do – a quip about someone’s name, a question posed to a couple in the front row, jokes based on where the play is being enacted.

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"How will Broken Images compare to Bikhre Bimb?" was the question uppermost in my mind when I stepped in to watch Alyque Padamsee’s version of the play at Chowdiah this Friday.

To give you a brief history, Broken Images is based on Odakalu Bimba, a hugely popular Kannada play written by Girish Karnad. The play opened in March 2005 as Ranga Shankara’s first production. It was directed by Girish Karnad and enacted in two languages at that time: Kannada, with Arundhati Nag as lead actor, and English (The Heap of Broken Images), with Arundhati Raja as lead actor. The play was later translated to Hindi (Bikhre Bimb), also enacted by Arundhati Nag.

Bikhre Bimb in its various avatars has seen scores of shows in Bangalore over the years, received awards and rave reviews.

Given the play’s renown in Bangalore’s theatre circuit, Broken Images had a lot to live up to. 

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Most people I know, when given a choice between watching a film or watching a play, will choose the film. I have tried getting friends to "convert", and have had to endure fidgets during the performance and accusing looks thereafter.

Wiser today, I have learnt a few gentle ways to break in others into the theatre experience. Sharing a few tips with you, I hope they come in useful if you too struggle to find company for play-watching as I do.

1. If your friend cares for star power, pick out a play with well-known actors in it. It is much easier to convince a theatre newbie to watch Shabana Azmi’s version of Broken Images than Arundhati Raja’s.

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I have never seen Shakespeare enacted on stage (not counting this spoof of Hamlet), but I’ve always wondered how tough it will be for present day actors to enact. For Indian actors even more so, who are not at their best with enunciation when the English gets too demanding.

John Clancy, an Obie award winning director, shares three principles to follow when performing Shakespeare. A must-read for anyone associated with theatre.

To quote:

The first thing to hold in your mind when working with Shakespeare is that he wrote for the stage, not for the page. The Globe was open to the sun, half the audience was standing and the reverent, hushed atmosphere of today’s audience was something a player had to earn and fight to keep against great odds, not something assumed. For the actor, this translates simply to making the primary focus and scene partner not your fellow actor, but the audience immediately in front of you.

Read the full piece here: Making Shakespeare Dull.