Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Cutting Chai with Bhawana Somaaya - Day 535

Aadayam Initiative
24/2/2015

Vickram Kapadia’s Masque will do a modern retelling of one of Shakespeare’s most riveting tales of romance and revenge, generosity and greed: The Merchant of Venice. Set to open on February 27 at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, this new play will also see the debut of Aditya Birla Group’s Aadyam initiative.

Aadyam, an initiative by the Aditya Birla Group, is bringing 5 new plays from highly reputed theatre groups, to coveted venues in Mumbai and Delhi. Crafting a holistic experience for each play that extends beyond the stage, Aadyam will reword our understanding of the process of watching a play, and through this, take theatre to newer audiences. Committed to producing performances of quality, Aadyam is working towards becoming India’s gateway to artistic expression for meaningful experiences and capacity audiences. Aadyam is making its foray first with theatre and intends to extend its interests to other forms of the performing arts. 

 The Merchant of Venice is a universal tale showcasing human beings’ propensity for love and hatred, generosity and greed, forgiveness or the lack of it, a satire on society then and now. Director Vickram Kapadia who launched his banner Masque in 1987, first directed the challenging Luigi Pirandello play Six Characters in Search of an Author. This was followed by landmark productions like AR Gurney’s The Dining Room, David Henry Hwang’s Dance and the Railroad, Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Eduardo Elba’s Marathon among others. In 1998 and 2001, the company collaborated with two other theatre producers - Rage and Ohinniyan – to create the hugely successful “Going Solo” evenings -- a series of monologues.

Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya

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