Arundhati Raja Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Jagriti will stage English drama Bali: Sacrifice In Bengaluru. Written by Girish Karnad, the play is directed by Arundhati Raja and will be staged at Ranga Shankara.

Bali… This is Karnad’s own English translation of the original Kannada work, Hitina Hunza, which was written especially for the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, UK and opened there in 2002. The play revolves around a king who is torn between his Jain queen and his mother, and takes you through a night of compassion, anger, laughter, overcoming obstacles. Caste and religious beliefs.

“Girish’s writing has always fascinated me. What I like is the way he changes up a routine story and builds his characters around a traditional story that has its own twists. He also once said that ‘If I had to write something exactly like what is in the history books, there would be no dramatic interest in them.’ And, I was mesmerized by it Bali… Because there were a lot of issues that kept coming up. All the women of Girih are empowered Yayati and in Bali“She has always wanted to do theatre,” says Arundhati, who has a degree in physiology, and has been into theater since her school days, “says the director, who adds that when she directs a play , So she “doesn’t force anyone.” Pronunciation on actor. There is no requirement for an actor to speak with a British or American accent on stage. Apart from this, when I direct a play, I look at the play from the point of view of direction and stick to the script. All our solid Indian playwrights also translated their scripts into English to reach a wider audience. If you follow your characters, plot and story, I think it doesn’t matter. Sometimes I get the pronunciation right, but not the pronunciation.”

Director with the actors of the drama. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“When Jagadish (Raja) and I came to Bengaluru from the UK, we saw a play by Bengaluru Little Theater (BLT) at Bal Bhavan. Yes, in those days this venue was also used for theatre. After the play, BLT announced that they were looking for people to join their group and announced an audition. We were interested in his plays, auditioned, got selected and even got cast in them. In a way, my theater journey progressed the way I really wanted,” shares Arundhati, who founded Artists Repertory Theater in 1982.

“We opened our production One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestTill then we had staged our plays at Bal Bhavan and Rabindra Kalakshetra, but a flew…opened at Chaudiya and was our first play to start there in 1982,” says Arundhati, who along with Jagadish also created a solid structure for Jagriti, which nurtures and stages theater in Whitefield.

Jagruti is built on his farm. “We had a farm in Whitefield, where we rehearsed, but performed elsewhere, and decided to create an awakening for the theatre, and that’s how this place came into existence,” says the director, who was then at the English Theatre. He also flourished when Kannada theater was at its peak in Bengaluru in the late 80s.

A scene from the drama Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Comparing English theater past and present day, when theater in every language is flourishing in the city, Arundhati feels: “In the 80s, we had the entire cantonment. In fact, there were quite a few English speaking people and at that time we did not have television, even English films were very rare. Therefore, people came out of their homes to watch plays, even English plays staged by Indian actors and theater groups. Although there were some traditionalists who did not like Indians playing English drama, but our shows were houseful.

“I’m Bengali, married to a Tamilian who lived in the UK, so literally my language is English. Hence, we could not perform in any other language. Sadly I think theater in English is declining because in Jagruti alone we see less English dramas and a lot more Hindi, Bengali and Tamil ones. Strangely, we didn’t find any Kannada production here. Maybe, it comes down to the feeling that we don’t have an audience on this side of town, but even in this part of town we have people coming from everywhere.

Bali, The Sacrifice will be staged at Ranga Shankara on January 19 at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm. Open to ages 14 and up. Tickets on BookMyShow