A women’s theatre festival makes another attempt at gender blending and bending
Somehow, I’ve never felt comfortable with receiving compliments on women’s day (March 8). The mere mention of the day as ‘My Day’ by male friends and colleagues annoys me not because I don’t take pride in my womanhood, but because one-day-for-us-and-the-rest-of-the-year-for-you doesn’t feel like a fair deal or even an achievement to be celebrated for that matter. However, let not that read like some feminist spiel, unappreciative of MANkind!
It was only after watching a few heart-rending theatre performances at “Leela”, ICCR’s first South Asian Women Theatre Festival that I reconciled to how the day is just symbolic of recognising the existence of women by men – ok, maybe not all – and more importantly by most women themselves. Held in New Delhi from March 8-15, ’10 in collaboration with National School of Drama and Jamia Millia Islamia, the festival “focused exclusively on Women’s Issues and aimed to bring together talented theatre groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” says Dr. Karan Singh, President, ICCR. Apart from the eight groups from South Asian countries, six theatre groups from different parts of India also performed at the festival. It was the common thread of problems like abject poverty, poor maternal and child health, low literacy levels, violence, social injustice and economic discrimination that brought these nations together to use the medium of theatre to address these issues. Several performances during the week-long event did fare well at touching hearts and creating hope. ‘Sakubai’, one such outstanding 90-minute play directed by Nadira Babbar and performed solo by 69-year-old Sarita Joshi (Baa from STAR PLUS's – "Baa Bahu Aur Baby"), had moments of profound thought, helpless soreness, humour and strength that left the audience in a rare packed auditorium awestruck and touched.
Somehow, I’ve never felt comfortable with receiving compliments on women’s day (March 8). The mere mention of the day as ‘My Day’ by male friends and colleagues annoys me not because I don’t take pride in my womanhood, but because one-day-for-us-and-the-rest-of-the-year-for-you doesn’t feel like a fair deal or even an achievement to be celebrated for that matter. However, let not that read like some feminist spiel, unappreciative of MANkind!
It was only after watching a few heart-rending theatre performances at “Leela”, ICCR’s first South Asian Women Theatre Festival that I reconciled to how the day is just symbolic of recognising the existence of women by men – ok, maybe not all – and more importantly by most women themselves. Held in New Delhi from March 8-15, ’10 in collaboration with National School of Drama and Jamia Millia Islamia, the festival “focused exclusively on Women’s Issues and aimed to bring together talented theatre groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” says Dr. Karan Singh, President, ICCR. Apart from the eight groups from South Asian countries, six theatre groups from different parts of India also performed at the festival. It was the common thread of problems like abject poverty, poor maternal and child health, low literacy levels, violence, social injustice and economic discrimination that brought these nations together to use the medium of theatre to address these issues. Several performances during the week-long event did fare well at touching hearts and creating hope. ‘Sakubai’, one such outstanding 90-minute play directed by Nadira Babbar and performed solo by 69-year-old Sarita Joshi (Baa from STAR PLUS's – "Baa Bahu Aur Baby"), had moments of profound thought, helpless soreness, humour and strength that left the audience in a rare packed auditorium awestruck and touched.
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