Jose Chirammel

This festival will be dedicated to the memory of Jose Chirammel, the late eminent theatre activist from Kerala. Jose Chiramel was a theatre director active in the eighties and nineties and has played an important role in developing a contemporary, experimental theatre culture in Kerala. Chiramel's dramas like 'Mudrarakshasam' had received national attention and he was also noted for translating Ibsen's plays and presenting them before local audiences. His drama camps were famous for actively involving people from various walks of life, influencing a generation of youngsters and creating an enthusiasm for theatre. Jose Chirammel was a powerful driving force in mobilizing successive generations of contemporary theatre fraternity of Kerala. Through his group, named Root, Chiramel took theatre out of the university, into the interiors of Thrissur district, setting up camps in villages and hamlets thus creating a movement that harnessed not just the radical young intelligentsia of the 1980s but also scores of ordinary people. It laid the foundation for contemporary experimental theatre in the region and created an atmosphere where theatre was appreciated.

Day 1

Thursday, 5th January 2017,
at Prithvi Theatre, Ville Parle, Mumbai by 7 pm

Play: Balcony

(presented by Remembrance group)
Playwright: Jean Genet
Director: Sasidharan Naduvil
Duration: 90 mts (No Interval)

“Grand Balcony” is a deluxe brothel. Through the window panes of the balcony, the play unveils the disguises that people wear. Madam Irma’s Grand Balcony is seen as the castle of miracles, which she runs along with the superior, Police Chief, where the balcony becomes the arena where the visitors dance in their favourite attires. A montage is seen that shows the play's sarcasm on the authorities - a judge who is ready to lick the feet of a criminal, and a Bishop, who is adamant to get out of his golden laces and royal mitre, is seen along with General, who finds his orgasm in being in General’s funeral cortege. When the rebellion fills panic in the rooms of the Grand Balcony, the visitors refuse to go out to their homes, thus finding their new homes in the Balcony. The Grand Balcony is attacked....

Day 2

Thursday, 6th January 2017,
at Prithvi Theatre, Ville Parle, Mumbai by 7 pm

Play: The Dumb Dancer (A Quest for Identity)

(presented by Remembrance group)
Playwright: Asif Currimbhoy
Director: Sasidharan Naduvil
Duration: 90 mts. (No Interval)

The Dumb Dancer is a story of a Kathakali (an Indian classical dance that has highly stylized gesture language) dancer Bhima, who plays the mythological role of Bhima and over identifies himself with the role to the extent of forgetting his own identity in this world. He gradually turns insane and becomes a patient in a mental asylum. Bhima, the Kathakali dancer is under the delusion that he is the real Bhima of the Mahabharata, who had avenged the humiliation of his beloved wife Draupadi by killing Duryodhana. He becomes mentally deranged at the thought of his having become a murderer, the victim in his insane fantasy. Dr. Prema, the psychiatrist who treats him, becomes so strongly involved emotionally with his problem that, instead of curing him, she herself becomes insane. While treating him she gradually starts identifying herself with Draupadi, the beloved wife of Bhima and slowly turns insane.

Day 3

Thursday, 6th January 2017,
at Prithvi Theatre, Ville Parle, Mumbai by 6 pm & 9 pm

Play: Old Man and the Sea

(Based on Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel, The Old Man and the Sea)
(presented by Remembrance group)
Director: Sasidharan Naduvil
Duration: 90 mts. (No Interval)

The main characters in the story are an old man named Santiago and Manolin, a young boy, friend, and supporter of Santiago.

Santiago is an old fisherman coming from a coastal village in Cuba. Manolin was his helper. Every day they went to the sea but even after forty days they could not get a single fish. So Manolin’s parents forced him to part with Santiago and fish with more successful fishermen. Eighty four days passed without getting a fish yet Santiago’s mind was with full of optimism.

He started again and on the third day a big Marlin fish swallowed the fishing hook and after a great struggle the old man conquered the Marlin and sailed back to the shore. But the blood of the injured Marlin spread in the water and a lot of sharks followed the skiff to eat the Marlin. The old man fought against the sharks and when he finally he reached the shore, only the huge skeleton of the Marlin was left.

Santiago’s struggle depicts the act of living with hope and never-ending enthusiasm. It is also a story of friendship between the old man and his young friend Manolin. The struggle of the oppressed and suppressed also displays the third world nations fight for their existence.

Sasidharan Naduvil (Director)

Sasidharan Naduvil is a rural theatre activist from Peruvanam, a village which inherits a variety of different art traditions and art practices. He is the disciple of the celebrated Theatre genius Jose Chirammel.

Sasidharan has been active in the field of theatre from the last 40 years. He has acted in 13 theatre productions, written more than 30 plays and directed over 400 Dramas for many theatre groups in Kerala and outside . He has been elected as the best director in more than 300 stages.

He directed dramas for different universities in Kerala for South zone and National youth festivals. He participated in Natyasamaroh held at New Delhi in 1987. He staged his plays in Mahindra Excellency Awards in New Delhi, Bharath Rang Maholsav and PRD theatre festival.

He has directed plays for KPAC ,a famous theatre group from Kerala and many groups outside India also. In 2008, he directed the reproduction of “Mudraraakshasam” a play directed by Jose Chirammel 25 years ago for the first edition of International Theatre festival of Kerala conducted by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy.

He has won Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy awards for the best Director and best playwright. He has directed plays of the celebrated international play rights like Genet(“Death watch” and “The Balcony”) Samuel Becket, Eugine O’Neil , Hemingway, Pearl S Beck, Andrew Weber, Max Frizz, Asim Karim bhai, Girish Karnad, Mohan Rakesh,Indira Partha Sarathi, Bhishma Sahani, Shivarama Karanth, Asif Karim bhai and writers from Malayalam C.J Thomas, K.T.Mohammed, Kavalam, M.T, , G. Sankarappilla, Omcheri, N.S. Madhavan, Basheer, Anand, and C.R.Parameshwaran. He has been selected as Best director by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka academy twice and Best script writer once. Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy felicitated him with the “Guru puja Award” for overall contribution to Theatre. Currently he is the creative director of Remembrance Theatre group.

Rememberance Theatre Group

Remembrance Theatre group is a theatre movement that integrates different rural theatres of Kerala. It started off with the performance of prominent 10 plays of Sasidharan Naduvil.

The core of the group is a set of campus theatre members of NSS Engineering College, Palakkad. The play “Old man and Sea” produced by them has been performed at Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards- New Delhi, BRM festival of National School of Drama and PRD theatre festival. Other productions of this group are Kovilante Makan, Death watch, Dumb Dancer, Harvest, Macbeth and Balcony are major Theatre productions of this group. Remembrance theatre group considers theatre activities as socio-cultural activism and aims at strengthening rural theatre and other theatre ensembles within the theatre activists of Kerala all over the world. They have been conducting activities in Thrissur, Calicut, Bangalore, Abudabi, Sharja and Qatar.

Artists

Balcony

Sathyajit, P.T.Manoj, Madan Kumar, Shaji Surendran,Thamam Mubarish, Rakesh Reghunath ,George, Pooja Mohanraj, Sunitha, Divya G, Sarath Jithesh,Rithwik Sreekumar, Henson Anto,Akhilash, Sathyajit, Sajas, Muraleedharan Thayyil, Abhilash, Vishnu, Anirudhan,Sreekumar,Rakesh Reghunath, R. Biju.

The Dumb Dancer

Prof. Aparna Lakshmanan, Dr. Niji Vijayan- Kumari Anju, Krishnanunni, Adv. Manikandan P.R.Jijoy,Manoj, Rakesh K R- Madhu, Praveen Anto, Rajithkumar,Sarath Vasu,Akhilash Pali Jithesh,Vishnu, Henson, Aravindan, Rithwik Sreekumar, Sathyajit, Muraleedharan Thayyil.

Old man and the sea

Prasanth Narayanan, P.T.Manoj, Rithwik Sreekumar,Henson,Akhilash, Jithesh, Abhilash Vishnu, Farzeen, Jex, Sathyajit, Jose Koshy, Muraleedharan Thayyil.

Script, Set, Costume, Direction- Sasidharan Naduvil

Keli Festival 2016-17

Phase 4:

Rhythm Festival on 19, 20, 21, 22 Jan
at Y.B Chavan Centre and Horniman Circle Garden

Our Sincere Thanks to:

Y.B. Chavan Centre, Prithvi Theatre, B. Venugopal, RajeshkumarDubey, Ajithkumar L, Mahesh, AjithMenon, Manojkumar, V. Sasikumar, InduSagar, Kunal Kapoor, Surendrababu,Kaippilly Vishnu Nambothirippad, Vijayakumar Nair, Junoon, Sanjna Kapoor, SameeraIyengar, SreekumarKaimal, Vijay Desai, Santhosh Nair, Vikram, Jayram Pala Ramachandran, DeepthiPanikkar

Supported by: