Thespo

Prithvi Theatre was the confluence of artistry during the Thespo Festival from 13th to 18th December 2011. This year, as Thespo enters adolescence, there was a lot to look forward with a grand line up of plays, theatre workshops and band performances.
The venue was buzzing with activity and animation, some chatting away at the Prithvi Café, others darting back and forth across the venue. The Thespo team, consisting mainly of under-25 young men and women has done a great job in organizing this grand festival.
4 plays were handpicked out of a whopping 95 from seven cities across India. These plays plunder relevant and current social issues such as cancer, homosexuality, suicide, pregnancy, inter caste marriage and politics, seemingly grim topics with steady, unwavering smiles.
The Marathi plays were thoroughly enjoyable, harmonizing the serious with the comical, often involving making a decision that ends up being life altering.
‘Patient’ is a young man’s struggle against cancer during the 1970’s, a time when medical science hadn’t made much progress. The performance was ensconced with subtle yet powerful theatrics. As the young lead struggles to cope with the disease. A powerful performance and a powerful play.
December 15th saw the performance of ‘Ek Don Adich’ directed by Aniket Patil. Everybod’s got problems. Especially the young man who struggles to commit suicide at Koparkhairane platform in the dead of the night. Having missed his train to his heavenly abode through a series of interruptions, his frustration and anger is our source of mirth.
A blind man stumbles onto the platform, and consequently opens up his eyes to reason, resonating the play’s anthem ‘Any two incidents are co-related to each other’.
A deliberative play that scrutinizes chance vs. fate, coincidences vs. scripted destiny and slants a bit towards existentialist aspects, it’s definitely worth a watch.
‘Janhit Mein Jaari’ directed by Abhishek Dave and Chinmay R Kulkarni is a not mundane by any angle. It touches upon a miasma of social issues such as inter caste marriage, pregnancy, safe sex, politics and women’s rights which plays up the humour throughout the story.
21 year old Dilip discovers that his girlfriend 19 year old Mandakini, is pregnant. Dilip’s father in law, Patil, is a man with a political background advocates inter-caste marriages in the village. We observe how Dilip scrambles to save himself from this dire situation and how Patil tries to exploit Dilip for political profits. A charming little ditty, with a colorful cast of characters, it’s simultaneously enjoyable and very educational. The intermittent song and dance routines give a charming rustic feel to the play. The performances from all the actors was filled with gusto and…
The Thespo 13 Awards Night saw ‘Patient’ walk away with the awards for Outstanding Play, Production Design and Director. ‘Ek Don Adich’ grabbed the ‘New Writing’ award. ‘Patient’ and ‘Janhit Mein Jaari’ both tied for the ‘Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role’ with Siddharth Mahashabde and Ashish Nasalapure receiving the awards respectively.

For Prithvi Theatre Notes, January 2012:
http://www.prithvitheatre.org/uploads/pdfs/PTNotes%20January%202012_1325153219.pdf