Rourkela: The fiveday festival to mark the ‘World Theatre Day’, March 27, ended Wednesday evening in Rourkela amid much fanfare at the ‘Music Circle Auditorium’.
The festival was organised by ‘Sampark’, one of the leading cultural organisations of this city. The entire event turned out to be a success as there were large crowds at the venue on each of the five days.
The five plays that were staged varied from ‘absurdity’ to the ‘hard facts of life’. Topics on social issues like ‘loneliness’ and ‘safety of senior citizens’ were also dealt with. These topics were well-appreciated by the gathering.
One of the funniest plays staged was The Zoo Story bordering on absurdity to a certain extent. It dealt with loneliness, a common problem for modern society. Similarly, religious plays like Krishna and Bhababinodia Kalathakura were enacted to depict the relationship between human beings and god. Then there were plays like Ek Khoya Hua Admi and Eka, the themes of which dealt with social problems.
Direction of all the five plays was top drawer stuff and the standard of acting very high indeed. Bhaskar Mohapatra’s play on Lord Jagannath, touched subtly on the folklore of Kanchi Bijay. Each of the plays had the distinct individual mark of the director. The lighting, stage and costume designing of the actors were also praised by audience. “They (organisers Sampark) are doing the festival for the last 17 years and I have never missed a single one,” said one spectator. There were similar views from the audience regarding the entire festival.
However, this year, the biggest handicap for all the participating troupes was the size of the stage. The usual hosting place, the prestigious ‘Civic Centre’ is under renovation. Hence the venue was shifted to ‘Music Circle’ where the size of the stage is small when compared to that of the ‘Civic Centre’. Participating teams however, handled the problem deftly.
PNN