[Reader-list] [Announcements] Solo Performance Tomorrow - Necropolis: rehearsing Koltes in such times

[Logos Theatre]

 *Maya Gallery of Contemporary Art and Logos Theatre present:*
**
*Necropolis: rehearsing Koltes in such times*
**

A play by Best of Kolkata Campus

Direction dramaturgy and performance: Parnab Mukherjee

Inspired from In the Solitude of Cottonfields by Bernard Marie Koltes

Additional text: Thangjam Ibopishak, Rajkumar Bhubonsana, Bhaskar
Chakraborty, Rabindranath Tagore and Mishing proverbs
Collaboration: Gautam Bajoria


*At: Maya Gallery of Contemporary Art,  59, Nandidurga Road (Behind the
airtel office)*
**
*Tomorrow (September 12th), at 18:30*
**
*Duration: One hour*
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*Non-ticketed, pay-as-you-wish.*
**
*Audience limited to twenty*
**
*Call: 9880966313, or mail contact at logostheatreindia.org*


*Synopsis:*
Necropolis is a part of a three part repertoire called The Trilogy of
Unrest, the first two being Hamletmachine: Images of Shakespeare-in-us and
an installation performance called This room is not my room.
The repertoire has toured the north-east, Siliguri, Kolkata, Pune and
Mumbai. The touring performance will culminate in the release of a special
commemorative edition of Five Issues on Indian theatre and
subversions-dedicated to Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar, Bishnu Rabha and
Arambam Samarendra

*Summary: *
Two men meet on the street. They have to make a deal. Or rather they want to
make a deal. One has something to sell and the other needs something to buy.
The Dealer is unsure what to peddle or would he want to peddle anything in
the first place. The Client knows what he has to buy but does not know
exactly what to. A cat and mouse game begins between these nameless,
faceless, shapeshifters who have to make a transaction which they are not
sure why would make. For the next chunk of minutes they indulge in selling
and buying of concepts without transacting anything. But they did make a
deal.
What are they selling? Or rather who is buying? Are technology,
displacement, memories of a genocide the new road-map of the new
universe. Are we such theoritical creatures that we have lost the power to
engage with real issues and provide a balm to the displaced, destitute,
fried, barbecued, roasted human-folk.?
More often than not we are groping for words to describe routine violence.
Routine cases of racial profiling. Of exclusion. Grappling with stereotypes.
Cliches. Biases on the basis of human rights. Unethical treatment of animals
who become globalised pharma companies? experimental guinea pigs. Biases on
the basis of sexual orientation. We are looking at images and we think
either they supplement the words or complement them. Is image only a memory
tool? Is it just a visual metaphor? Is it just to learn things by heart? By
rote? What is a performance? Merely a text or an improvisation or?a
series?of theatre exercises which are prescribed as typical workshop
methods? The performance probes into the image -word relationship?gets into
the rationale of images...
What images are we looking at? Nelllie-Morichjhaanpi, Malom, Mokokchung,
Arrest of Vinayak Sen in Chattishgarh...What was the process of transforming
the "us" into "them".....How are "they" celebrating diversity and "their"
culturalness in these times? The performance negotiates these terrains. By
the time the performance ends nobody has bought, nobody has sold?yet those
two individuals have transformed themselves enough to be probably up for
sale if the next set of clients gatecrash into the narrative.


*About the Director/ Performer:*

An independent media analyst and a performance consultant by profession, Mr.
Parnab Mukherjee is one of the leading alternative theatre directors' of the
country. He divides his time between Kolkata, Imphal and the Darjeeling
hills. Currently, a consultant with a human rights initiative, he has
earlier worked for a sports fortnightly, an English daily and a Bengali
daily. He is an acclaimed authority on Badal Sircar's theatre and
specialises in theatre-for-conflict-resolution and theatre-of-the-campus.

He is considered as a leading light in alternative theatre in the country
having directed more than 50 productions of performance texts including
three international collaborations. He has also performed 12 full length
solos which include an acclaimed series of plays on trafficking, HIV and
segregation called the River series, and *Foot Hills to Hills, *a?series of
plays?with Darjeeling as the living inspiration.
Parnab has created a personal idiom of using spaces for theatre exploration.
He has extensively worked on a range of human rights issues which include
specific theatre projects on anti-uranium project struggles in Jadugoda and
Turamdihi, Save Tenzin campaign, rehabilitation after industrial shutdowns,
shelter issue of the de-notified tribes, a widely acclaimed cycle of?nine
plays against Gujarat genocide, and a range of issues on north-east with
special reference to Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958.
Four of his major workshop modules:* Freedomspeak*, *The Otherness of the
Body*, *Conflict* *as a Text *and *The Elastic Body *have been conducted
with major theatre groups and campuses all over the country. He has written
five books on theatre
*Best of Kolkata Campus: *
Best of Kolkata Campus, a non-profit performance company, has completed 15
years of doing dedicated theatre in found spaces and public arena. It has
produced a number of young theatre workers who are active in the cultural
and audio-visual training arena. It is a loosely formed collective
of?individuals who believe that theatre is an important an independent tool
of dissent outside the ambit of party politics.

Some of the most memorable productions of the group include *Hamletmachine*,
*Antigone*, *Raktakarabi-an urban sound opera*, *Bhul Rasta*, *Kasper-dipped
and shredded*, *They Also Work*, *River Monologues*, *Dead-Talk
series,?Coversations with the dead, Crisis of Civilisation, Shakespeare
shorts, Man to Man talk, Inviting Ibsen for a Dinner with Ibsen*?and *And
the Dead Tree Gives no Shelter.*?

The group also works in the field of installation performances and
theatre-of-conflict-resolution and peace studies. It has travelled
extensively all over the country doing shows, giving workshops and exploring
alternative performance idioms.


-- 
Logos Theatre
          In the beginning was the word
No. 126,
3rd Main Road,
Jayamahal Extension,
Bangalore 560046
--------------------------------------------------------
If it be now, 'tis not to come;
if it be not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
Let be.
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