21 March 2017,
Kaumudi by Abhishek Majumdar (Theatre)
(Two shows)
Rangayan at 16:00
19:00, (Ticketed)
Indian Ensemble’s KAUMUDI on Sat 18 & Sun 19 June at 5pm & 9pm.
Kaumudi is about a rite of passage. Using the “moonlit timeless night” when Krishna delivers his sermon to Arjuna as its central trope, this play explores the dynamics between an estranged father-son duo who play Eklavya’s ghost and Abhimanyu respectively, in a theatre, in late 1960’s Allahabad. The father, Satyasheel, who is a great actor and has almost lost his sight, is at his final three performances. Thus son, Paritosh, who grew up with the void of not having a father by his side, has come to challenge not only the father but also his entire school of thought.
Kaumudi is hinged on three central questions: Whose life is more valuable, an older or a younger person’s? Is personal ethic more important than public ethic? Does art have a function, and do we make art or does art make us? It also holds up a mirror to it and questions theatre: Does theatre have a meaning or is it our ego being massaged? Whose theatre is it— that of the audience or of the practitioner?
Kaumudi has been inspired by two texts: Anand’s Malayalam novel Vyasam Vigneswaram and Jorge Luis Borges’ essay Blindness.
Writer & Director: Abhishek Majumdar
