Watch 'Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin' star Mona Singh and her crew perform 'Laughter Therapy' at Guwahati Theatre Festival 2018 in Pragjyotish ITA Centre, Machkhowa on 16th November.
To join the laughter club book your Show now at https://bit.ly/2K6RhbQ
“Performance is the key to human experience”
Theatre is an art form that brings people together to celebrate, challenge and provoke through the telling of stories. Theatre is live, and in the present world art is consumed through live-streams, computers and so on. The city life and its habits miss that extraordinary atmosphere, the intrinsic beauty of the art-form and sense of grounding and presence that theatre gives.
With that in mind, the third edition of the Guwahati Theatre Festival is set to kick off at Pragjyoti ITA Centre, Machkhowa at 7 PM on Friday, November 16. Here’s what in store for the visitors
1. Laughter Therapy
Directed and designed by Meherzad Patel, laughter Therapy is set in a therapy workshop, where we see four men - the Parsi - Mehernosh Siganporia, the Christian-Victor Rodricks, the Hindu-Mahesh Kadam and the Muslim boy-Mohammed Abdul Qadir Shaikh - all coming together to seek mental help from a therapist played by Mona Singh who seems to have issues of her own.
The 5 actors on stage portray 30 different characters in the play, which should be watched for its versatility.
These four men have done something illegal, or inappropriate, or have trouble facing their fears and have all gotten court-ordered therapy. Except, they have been forced into therapy they don’t wish to get cured and that’s what makes it hilarious and interesting. What was meant to be court-ordered therapy turns into laughter therapy for the audience!
The roles of the four men are being played by Siddharth Merchant, Danesh Khambata, Danesh Irani and Sajeel Parakh.
2. Detective 9-2-11 (Nuh-Do-Gyarah)
Set in the mesmerizing Mumbai of the black and white era, Atul Kumar’s shocking adventure tale is a ridiculous whirlwind of romance, murder, deceit and suspense. A casual evening at the theatre quickly turns into a fast-paced chase sequence for the unsuspecting hero when gun shots are fired at the legendary Opera House during a performance. A mysterious and beautiful woman lands in his arms pleading for help amid mob chaos and he reluctantly agrees, walking right into an International spy ring primed and ready to unleash a treacherous scheme that will disarm the nation and give away control of a vital defence secret. Without any warning or heroic intentions, Shekhar Kumar (the lead character) finds that he is the only one who can stop this outrageous plan.
Detective 9-2-11 is a gripping, nerve-wracking but thoroughly exhilarating escape drama where the events are always poised at the cusp of impossibility and yet, within the faint shadow of ‘probable’. Shekhar Kumar is the man of the hour, racing against time and hunted by both, the good and bad guys all over land and sea. He remains incognito for sleazy sleuths and irresistible to femme fatales. Wrapped up in the enigmatic visual and narrative style of ‘Noir’, Shekhar is an ordinary man with an extraordinary story to tell.
Directed by the very talented Atul Kumar, the play features Gagan Dev Riar, Srishti Srivastava, Mrinmayee Godbole, Abir Abrar, Anna Ador, Mallika Singh, Neil Bhoopalam, Niketan Sharma, Rachel D Souza, Rohan Shetty, Sanket Kadam, Sukant Goel.
3. Foreign Body
Foreign Body is the beautifully crafted debut solo show by artist Imogen Butler-Cole about hope, healing and forgiveness after sexual assault. Uniquely told from the perspective of the survivor and perpetrator of the same assault, using a charged combination of verbatim, physical theatre and a stunning original soundtrack, Foreign Body is a brave, liberating and life-affirming story.
In the wake of #MeToo, #TimesUp and the naming of The Silence Breakers as TIME Person of the Year, Foreign Body has never been more relevant or more urgent.
After being developed for two years, the play premiered at Southbank Centre’s WOW Festival in March 2017, had a sell-out run at Soho Theatre that summer and toured to Exeter Bike Shed, Hamilton House Bristol, Coventry Equalities Festival, Northampton University and festivals such as Off Beat Oxford, Brainchild, Clear Lines and WOW Exeter and, most recently, VAULT Festival in London.
Written and performed solely by Imogen Butler-Cole, the play has been directed by Fran Moulds.
4. Stories in a Song
Stories in a Song is musical collage of theatre, literature and history, which includes accounts of music-making, and the struggles faced by musicians, laying the foundation for a collage of dramatized episodes that blend theatre, music, literature, and history.
Several forms of theatre in India make abundant use of music, but Stories in a Song takes the help of theatre to tell stories of musical forms such as kajri, thumri-dadra, khayal, remixes and more. It features vignettes laced with humour and wit that tell stories of music, and music making from history, literature, and theatre.
What's most beautiful about Stories in a Song is that it is a play that talks of the subaltern, women's emancipation, subversion, protest and repossession. But these are ideas that easily mingle with the larger stories and let you enjoy an evening of absolutely gorgeous song and dance.
The play has been conceived by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan and directed by Sunil Shanbag. Featuring Sukant Goel, Saurabh Nayyar, Namit Das, Avantika Ganguly, Ketaki Thatte, Trisha Kale, Makrand Deshpande, Sunil Shanbag, Gagan Riar and Sharvari Deshpande, the play wouldn’t be what it is without the musicians Sada Mulik (dholak, pakhawaj), Jayesh Dhargalkar (tabla) and Vinod Pagde with vocal support from Trisha Kale and Ajitesh Gupta.
The Guwahati Theatre Festival is initiated by G Plus in association with Ballantines. Powered by Assam Tribune and supported by Apollo Hospitals Guwahati, North East Small Finance Bank, XUV 500 from Mahindra & Mahindra, Servo from Indian Oil, and Outreach Advertising. This season, the Guwahati Theatre Festival has joined hands with Round Table India Guwahati Chapter GCRT 239 to promote and propagate the festival.
