Tales Of Tenali Rama opens with an address to the little girls and boys in the auditorium, asking them to mind the adults accompanying them – thus striking up with their target audience a bond that sustains throughout the show. A trio of narrators – “Guruji” and his two sparring students – steer us through the escapades of Tenali Rama, the court-poet of 16th century Vijayanagara. They add into the mix their own brand of commentary which includes, among other things, breaking into Carnatic-style renditions of nursery rhymes when the mood takes them.

Anecdotes of Tenali Rama’s wit and wisdom are familiar territory. What makes this retelling special is the cheeky spin given to them. So, when Tenali Rama has recited the multiplication tables (yes, no mantras) some zillions of times at the Kali Temple, he is surprised to find Kali Mata show up as a pretty girl rather than a tongue-lolling demonic being. He quizzes her about it, and the Goddess rattles off the dangers of stereotyping. A joke is thrown in for good measure about portion sizes in the times of inflation.

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I have been reading Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) on my ride to work. A very absorbing play with a central character reminiscent of the decadence of Hedda Gabler. I’d love to see an Indian adaptation.

Saving a write-up on the play for later, this is just a note about an odd coincidence. In the play, Blanche Dubois says of her sister’s brutish husband Stanley:

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A selection of plays watched in the recent past that I recommend to every theatre fan.

1. Love Letters

Letter exchanges between a couple over a span of fifty years – that’s the play in one line and to know why the seemingly thin plot is so terribly interesting, you must see it. Some actors wear layers of makeup to give the illusion of age and still don’t convince you; some like Rajit Kapoor and Shernaz Patel simply be and make you believe they are aging. The lead actors turn in performances so heartfelt that one of them had tears unabated even after the show was over.

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There was dancing, there had to be, come on – it was Grease after all, and there was singing – some high quality,  serious a** kicking singing, and there was a lot of fun. A lot of it.

Jim Jacob’s and Warren Casey’s 1971 musical, based on a high school in 1950s "greasers" – the working class kids of America at the time as they were known, is an absolute charmer of a production and also a tough nut to crack. But Laila Alvares’s production did perfect justice to the play and the sheer vibrancy that made Grease- Grease and Travolta- Travolta in the film version.

Anyone who follows theatre in Bangalore knows all too well of Laila Alvares’s penchant for musicals and her ability to pull them off with tremendous style and aplomb. This one is no exception either. It leaves you with the kind of energy and buoyancy that you have been longing to see on the stage.

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Korean performing group TUIDA has kindly shared with DramaDose some interesting insights on their award-winning production The Tale Of Haruk, which recently played in Chennai and Bangalore to packed audiences.

In conversation with HeeJin Lee, the associate producer and tour manager of TUIDA.

Shuchi: What was the inspiration for the story of The Tale Of Haruk?

TUIDA: There was a character in the Korean old folk tale, which ate everything made of steel. We started from that character and put several motifs of old stories together in this story.

Shuchi: The Tale Of Haruk has sombre undertones; it isn’t uniformly cheery as children’s plays tend to be. The night of Haruk’s transformation is rather spooky. Did you have any qualms at all that the script might be too heavy or scary for children to handle?

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Is that a bucket, a movie camera or the head of a cow? A cup of coffee, a phone or flowers in a temple? Objects in this play transmogrify, and how! If for nothing else, this play is a must-watch for the inventiveness of its props.

But there is a lot else to watch Perch’s Miss Meena for. A superb set of actors who double as singers, instrumentalists (not to mention winged moths). The hallmark of great acting is to stand out even when you’re doing nothing. Witness "Ravi Anna" become a statue to see what I mean.

Miss Meena‘s script is loosely based on The Visit by Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A major shift from the original is in making the play revolve around films. This gives a lot of scope for crowd-pleasing parodying of movie clichés. Early on is a sequence of auditions for a film to be shot in the village – Ravi Anna’s rendition of a film climax complete with gunfire is to die for.

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Never before have I seen Ranga Shankara so full, so agog with chatter. People sat on the steps, children (who made up a large share of the audience) took great persuasion from their guardians to settle down, groups that sat separated talked excitedly with each other across the aisles.

With that kind of anticipation and turnout, began The Tale Of Haruk.

The Tale Of Haruk is a Korean play aimed at children. Performed by TUIDA, the play is in Korean. Subtitles in English were displayed on screens on either side of the stage. Not that many subtitles were needed: the play does not have many dialogues. Of what is there, a lot of it is made up of the single word – “haruk”.

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