Rangashankara

This evening, went to see a play titled 'Sankranti' at the Rangashankara theatre fest. The official website is here and many celebrities had showed up, all sitting quitely along with the normal folk to watch the play.

The acting was pretty decent, and the lighting was excellent. What I noticed about the lighting was that the lights actually had a role, they way they were manipulated and synchronised. Although there were some mistakes, the play was pulled off pretty well.

I didn't exactly get the play as the language was beyond my comprehension, but it was basically a love story of a Shudra falling in love with a Brahmin girl, and the political and social turmoil it generates, in the setting of the Sharana movement, something that really took place.

The story, or what I understood from it, was that a Brahmin goes and complains to the King that a Shudra/Sharna had abused his daughter. They appear to be lover, with her flirting with him, and he obviously, being the man that he is. The king has a long debate with his prime minister, the actual content of the play, which I did not catch. Later, the decision is made that the King will ask the girl if what the boy did was abuse or love.

In a powerful answer, that shocks the audience, the girl says 'abuse' and falls down crying. When asked if she did not play around with him, and flirt with him, she agrees that she did, but does not change her answer (???). The king orders for the boy's head to be chopped off, in order to protect the trust that the people have in his administration.

Learnt a lot of things... about a lot of people... and about a gender.