If you have ever come across the expression "work is killing me" and wondered what that really means, then Ram Ganesh Kamatham’s Dancing On Glass is a good start towards finding some answers.

The plot consists of 3 principal characters; one of who never materializes on stage and remains a mere voice-over. Driving home after 48 hours of incessant work results in the premature death of this unseen person named Pradeep. That leaves us with his room-mate: Shankar, and his (Pradeep’s) girlfriend: Megha.

Read more…

I was in New York this month. By lucky chance, I happened to be living just a stone’s throw away from Broadway, the avenue in Manhattan from which Broadway Theatre takes its name.

Saw Stomp, an extraordinary show of choreographed percussion and mime.

There wasn’t time for more but I did manage a "photo shoot" of the Broadway Theatre District, exclusively for DramaDose!

Read more…

“Music is all around us, all you have to do is listen.” Stomp drives home that idea with a bang. Literally.

Brooms sweep the floor in chorus, paper bags rustle, fingers snap and trashcan lids clang in this stunning off-Broadway comic-musical performance. Audaciously inventive, Stomp uses the oddest instruments to create percussion – from water-laden washbasins slung around performers’ necks to stuff pulled out of a garbage bag.

The two hour show runs without intermission. It is split into segments, thoughtfully planned so that quieter portions give respite after high-decibel ones. (It can get extremely loud!)

Read more…

Links to the best writings elsewhere on the net about Dreams of Taleem.

This review posted on YahooGroups brings out an interesting subtext of the play – that of motherhood.

…if you look at the play in another way – not about being gay (or not just that), but about being a mother. Ek Madhavbagh is a mother’s monologue, the actress who delivers it reacts as a mother, the actress in the play that Aney wants to act Ek Madhavbagh speaks about her own ambiguous experience of motherhood, towards the end Aney has a long, anguished phonecall with his mother – and right through it all goes this potent image of the mad mother, to who Sita must take on a mother’s role.

Read more…

‘Dreams of Taleem’ had an unusual opening. As Girish Karnad’s stentorian voice asking us to please switch off our mobile phones faded, Sunil Shanbag the director walked onto stage. He spoke of Chetan Datar, the playwright who wrote ‘No.1 Madhavbagh’ and who passed away suddenly in 2008. ‘No.1 Madhavbagh’ was a mother’s monologue, of her coming to terms with her son’s sexuality. ‘Dreams of Taleem’ is a lot more – written by Sachin Kundalkar, it is a play outside ‘No.1 Madhavbagh’ within which Chetan Datar’s original work gets enacted.

Sunil Shanbag spoke not like the director addressing an audience, but like one speaking to a friend. His five minutes on stage made an instant positive connect. They also helped to bring clarity to a fairly complex plot; we might have struggled to grasp what was going on without it.

Read more…

A play about love, loneliness, greed and deceit – and amazingly, it’s a comedy.

Three characters on stage (rather four – one’s in a "double role") exchange witticisms through which Double Vision unfolds. The story hinges on Spinks, a retired, lonely boxer who pretends to have won a big lottery in order to get some fame and friends. An alcoholic pal Kingsley with a secret of his own, and a mysterious pair of twin sisters (both played by Kshama Ravishankar) complete the cast.

We gradually pick up threads about the characters’ lives through their banter – Spinks’s less-than-ideal upbringing, his reluctance to admit to his failing eyesight (which provides some good laughs) and his failed career, Dawn’s religiosity and Donna’s craftiness.

There are revelations towards the end, none of which are terribly surprising – not that it matters; this is a comedy not a suspense thriller.

Read more…