Prutha Goa

Kala Academy’s School of Drama brings us another gem from the playwright Pundalik Naik, performed by its students. Chaitanyak Matt Naa , which loosely translated means that one cannot contain consciousness or enthusiasm within an edifice, was written in 1989-90. The Konkani play, much along the lines of Naik’s novel Achhev ( Upheaval ), Chaitanyak Matt Naa serves us with a view of the consequences of our actions, or alternately, our inertia, and the impact of an awakened consciousness. This play was initially performed as an exercise in improvisational class with the first year students, and soon the possibility of performing it for an audience was envisioned. The ensemble play was appreciated for its potential to encompass students from all the three years of the drama school, giving them a chance to bond with each other, particularly the first year students. Padmashree Josalkar, the director of the School of Drama, says, ‘When you see them loading and unloading the sets from the bu

Good Luck, Bad luck, Who Knows? is a brand new play from The Mustard Seed Company, written by Isabel Santa Rita Vas and directed by Isabel Vas and Kiran Bhandari. The play was performed with much success, eliciting appreciation from the audience. The play explores how the changing condition of a particular street, called Rua de Mascate (Street of Hawkers), Good Luck Street or Bad Luck Street depending on its circumstances, transforms the people associated with it. This street is threatened by a garbage dump and the building of a parking lot. We are introduced to the play’s protagonists, whose lives are revealed to be deeply connected with this street.  Harsha, an older lady with dementia, has made her home in this street after being cast out by her own daughter. She responds to any given situation with a stream of appropriate Gandhian quotes despite the limited functionality of her brain.  Pranoy is an artist who has defied pressure from his brother to go into a mainstream profession

The Mustard Seed Company is a name well associated with quality English theatre and has evolved entirely in Goa, thanks to the efforts of Isabel de Santa Rita Vas. The amateur theatre company has in the past performed plays that make you stop and think about life, society, the world, and the role you have to play. The latest production of The Mustard Seed Art Company is called Good Luck, Bad Luck, Who Knows? , and it will transport its audience to a street in Goa. Why a street, you ask. Isabel Vas says, ‘This is where things happen, where people’s paths cross, where strangers make contact and for a moment become neighbourly.  Streets are pathways and footpaths, but they are far from being mere blank spaces between the point of departure and the point of arrival. Flanked by doorways and window sills, and verandahs and attics, the street is filled with sounds and smells and lights and shadows, presence and absence. It’s on a street that long lost friends bump into each other, where the f

Lights Out! by Manjula Padmanabhan finds new expression through Dnyanesh Moghe’s direction and his actors. The play, which was performed on the 10th of August 2019 at the Multipurpose Hall, Central Library, Panjim, was inspired by a true incident that took place in 1982 in Santa Cruz, Bombay, albeit with fictional characters recreating it. The play commences with an unnerving, unearthly cry, evoking a sense of trepidation and suspense. We are told that the protagonist Leela has been hearing these distressing cries for some time and been pressuring her husband Bhaskar to call the police. Although she is not certain of the reason for the cries, innate intuition does not allow her to dismiss them as anything but the result of a crime. Bhaskar, on the other hand, finds every excuse in the book to avoid calling the police. He deems it fit, however, to call his friend Mohan to watch the ‘spectacle’ that we learn he has been witness to. What follows is an inane justification of the clearly un

As dramatic and over the top as tiatr can be, it cannot be denied that it is quintessentially Goan and has proven time and again to be a vehicle of social, political and cultural messages. There is a certain section of Goans who attempt to distance themselves from tiatr, believing themselves to be culturally superior to individuals who are a frequent audience. I remember my English professor at Carmel College declaring that Shakespeare’s plays were nothing but the tiatr of his times. It is indeed ironical that even today we have Goans studying Shakespeare in detail and disdaining this Goan form of theatre. Tiatr has existed in Goa for over 125 years and has historically played a part in the preservation of the Konkani language and culture during the Portuguese rule. The tiatr is divided into parts called pordhe (the singular is pordho ). Between two pordhe there will be two or three kantaram (songs) where the singers are accompanied by a live band using Western musical instruments.

When the Day Was Young is The Mustard Seed Company’s latest serving of amateur English theatre, much appreciated by those who feel the dearth of English language plays in Goa. The play that was performed at Gomant Vidya Niketan, Margao, and in collaboration with Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Panjim, at the Sunaparanta amphitheatre, dealt with the age-old problem of seniors being relegated to homes for the elderly. The playwright, Isabel Vas, delves into the deeper concerns that affect the golden years with a touch of magical realism. The story begins with Bonita, an old woman, having a conversation with herself, and attempting to cheer herself up with some entertainment to keep her sanity. There is a supernatural being she communicates with who is not revealed to the audience. Sushila, the caretaker, or supervisor, of the old age home, is extremely ‘by the book’ and brooks no rule to be broken. A future political aspirant, Sushila is an uptight personality who is governed enti

The 7th and 10th of October 2016 saw a production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm staged by The Mustard Seed Art Company. Audiences who caught the play adapted from the famous novel at Gomant Vidya Niketan (Margao) and Kala Academy (Panaji), were fortunate indeed. Those acquainted with Orwell’s novel, written in 1945, will certainly make connections with its allegory which retells the political scenario of the time, with communism hailed as the answer to society’s problems. The novel mirrors the events that took place from before the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the rule of Stalin. The satirical novel, by his own admission, is Orwell’s first deliberate attempt to use literature towards a political revelation. The play produced by The Mustard Seed Art Company was adapted for theatre from the novel by Peter Hall. The play opens with old Major, the boar, fomenting the spirit of rebellion among the farm animals with his tirade against humans. After old Major dies, the younger pigs Napoleo

It is a special gift to be able to recognise your calling at a young age as happened with Kyla Grace Olivia D’Souza, founder and artistic director at The Peas & Carrots Theatre Company. Starting at the tender age of four, when Kyla took part in her first play, a musical called Angelina, she became completely enamoured with acting. The journey has been eventful thus far. Preferring an imaginary world to reality, Kyla has, through school, college and after her graduation with a degree in advertising, been immersed in the world of art; be it in any form – acting, music or dance. She says, ‘Being on stage is something that both challenges and comforts me. It's is all I've ever known and wanted to do.’ There is an endless list of plays and playwrights that Kyla holds in high esteem and that list includes the works of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Harold Pinter, Sam Shepard, Eugene O'Neil, Edward Albee, Garcia Lorca and so on. But, she says, ‘If I absolutely had to though, I'

Theatre is a conduit to releasing the inner self and the psychological and sociological benefits of being part of a theatre group are plentiful. In the world of theatre, what does the box theatre bring to this equation? Let us discuss its presence in Goa through the Hauns Sangeet Natya Mandal and the Hauns Theatre Training Centre. It is not surprising that one of the most noted theatre companies of Goa saw its naissance in Ponda, also known as Antruj Mahal for being a culturally vibrant locale with its numerous temples. The establishment of the Hauns Sangeet Natya Mandal in 1950 was the culmination of the efforts of artistically and culturally kindred spirits. Of these artists, two are the now deceased Vishwanath Naik and Surya Wagh. They sought to play their part in contributing to the plentiful festivals and fairs that Ponda is famous for by staging and performing in dramas. It did not matter that most of them were illiterate or had minimal formal education; it was the hard work and

Goa has a new reason to be proud, as the Hauns Sangeet Natya Mandal, Ponda, has pioneered the staging of an adaptation of Raymond Smullyan’s dialogue between man and his Maker on the dilemma of possessing free will. The play is called Is God a Taoist? and is based on Smullyan’s book The Tao is Silent . Raymond Smullyan has had a singular career course that has ranged from stage magic to authoring books on Taoism. The nonagenarian polymath is acclaimed for his manifold talents as concert pianist, logician, Taoist philosopher, mathematician, puzzle maker, and magician. In his book, published in 1977, Smullyan gave an understanding of Eastern philosophy to the Western world for the first time. It is Smullyan’s surmise that the Taoist is one who enjoys what he has rather than looking for that which is not in his grasp. The dialogue begins with man urging God to take away his free will, which he sees as the bane of his existence and the reason for his sinfulness. Through a pattern of reaso

Many a times we are held back from achieving our dreams because we permit our fears to overcome us. We stew in the hell our minds fabricate and sabotage our own ambitions. All Those Pipe Dreams is a reminder that surmounting the perceived obstacles in our path can be achieved by confronting our fears. The play opens with typical banter between husband and wife, with Caitu Soares playfully teasing his wife about her obsession with make-up and ‘high fashion’, while Veena harangues him to get the pipes fixed so that water will flow into the sink again. The scene seems innocuous enough to belie the prospect of anything untoward occurring or having occurred. We learn that Caitu has purchased this huge mansion in the hope of starting a restaurant but does not seem to have made a go of his dreams as yet. Sonali is Caitu and Veena’s daughter, we learn, who has not visited home in a long time and is designing furniture in Chennai. Both parents yearn for their absent child. Meanwhile Caitu sets