All in a night's play
Kuvempu's Malegalalli Madumagalu, is being adapted to theatre and the first show will be on April 23 at the Rangayana in Mysore. The nine-hour play is set to create a record in modern theatre history, says Nagaraja Dixit
| Nine hours of action, 70 artists testing their talent on stage, four 30-minute intervals..., and the audience moving from one location to the other in the Rangayana premises during each interval to watch the play. Wow! that's one drama of mammoth proportions. With the theatre adaptation of Malegalalli Madumagalu, Rangayana and the people behind the magnum opus are looking at breaking all records in modern theatre history. Situated in Mysore and till recently embroiled in controversies, Rangayana has ventured into this new experiment as part of its 21st anniversary. Malegalalli Madhumagalu, a well-known mega novel of Rastrakavi Kuvempu has been adapted into theatre and will be staged for the first time on April 23 and then on alternate days up to May 11.
The project is unique in many ways. You might have seen a yakshagana or a village drama that is staged through the night. But this is something different as modern theatre has never witnessed such a fete of gargantuan proportions --- the play, which starts at 8.30 pm, will conclude at around 5.30 am the next day. This makes it the longest duration play in the history of modern theatre. Adding to it is the fact that the play has been produced in a short duration - just five months, to be precise. That's not an easy task considering that British director Peter Brook's mega play Mahabharath, which had a running time of eight hours and was first staged in 1985, took 13 years of production. GRAND PREPARATIONS The play will be performed in stages erected at different locations likeVanaranga, Dundukana, Puthani Vana and Rangadarshini and interstingly, the audience will have to move from one stage to another to watch it. Well known theatre personality and former Director of Rangayana C. Basavalingaiah who is directing the play, said apart from Rangayana artistes, 50 artistes, mostly amateurs will be depicting over one hundred roles in the play. The entire story is set in the picturesque Malnad area, in Thirthahalli taluk, which is blessed with lush greenery , rivers, streams and hills. To depict the region was one of the biggest challenges. Art director H K Dwarakanath took up the challenge and with some modification he has converted the Rangayana premises to look like the Malnad region. DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES "It is our effort to come out of the comfort zone of conventional theatre. Kuvempu ( K V Puttappa) has a special and unique identity in the Kannada literary world for his out-of-the-box thinking. His masterpiece Malegalalli Madumagalu is a great example of a new wave in writing,” says C Basavalingaiah. "We have used all techniques of the theatre including intimate theatre. However, the play stands out for many things. We have used famous folk forms like "Arjuna Jogi" "Sudugadu Siddaru" and "Ati Kalinja" to narrate the play," he added. National School of Drama alumnus Basavalingaiah, who conceptualised and worked for the last 25 years to bring this magnum opus on stage feels that the play will inspire the audience to read the novel. "I feel the play will be a great success if it inspires and create an urge to read the novel and I am sure it will," he observed. MAGNUM OPUS Malegalalli Madhumagalu is a complex novel that depicts the conflict between tradition and modernity, Christianity and Hinduism, love and marriage, and the individual and society in the Malnad region of Karnataka in the 19th century. It was a great challenge to adopt 700 pages of the mega novel to the theatre form. K Y Narayanaswamy and Krishnaprasad took the challenge and succeeded. Famous music director Hamsalekha has scored music for the drama which has 48 music tracks. Kannada and Culture department readily accepted to finance the project. |
