Pulling the right strings
See a hand-show performance, and 'kuker' masks at the 12th Ishara puppet festival
NEW DELHI :
Star-crossed lovers; a camel that eats everything; and kabaad, or trash, turning into creepy crawlies—the latest edition of the Ishara International Puppet Festival brings a treasure chest of stories to entertain children and grown-ups alike. Featuring nine national and international acts, the festival combines traditional and contemporary practices like rod, string and shadow puppetry. It will be on for nine days with performances spread across Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh.
“Puppet theatre has not always been about children; it caters to adults as well. The Ishara festival gives the same platform to both traditional and contemporary puppet theatre to open people’s mind to this art form," says Dadi Pudumjee, puppeteer and founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust that has been organizing the festival since 2001.
This year marks the entry of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan State Puppet Theatre will give the audience a glimpse of its country’s folk culture with Chantatrio, a 40-minute puppet show about a dancing donkey, a man looking for love and a blackbird that thinks highly of itself.
From Bulgaria, Tumba-Lumba will convey the gaiety and folklore of the country through music. “We use authentic objects like the kuker mask (a colourful mask worn during a traditional Bulgarian ritual to scare away evil spirits), wooden spoons and the three-legged chair in the act to educate people, especially the younger generation, about our folk environment," says Tumba-Lumba director Hristina Arsenova, in an email response.
Drew Colby from the UK will give a hand-show performance, Peter And the Wolf, with classical music by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev playing in the background.
Another highlight of the festival is Life in Progress, from India. This play has no defined narrative, but a series of images that look at our lives and the environment using kabaad. “Trash and consumption are the two most obvious signs of today’s times. There are shades of conflict, conformity, fascism and struggle in the images," says Anurupa Roy, director of the play and managing trustee of Delhi-based Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust. “We have used 20kg of common everyday discards, including newspapers and plastic bottles, to create life on stage and make the audience see the magic in the mundane."
With The Ishara Encounters, Pudumjee, the director, will present a mélange of previous performances. “This act celebrates the festival’s 12th edition with excerpts from our previous performances. They are linked together by a discussion between a sutradhar, an eternal pessimist who has given up on human beings, and a puppet, who is an optimist," he says. “This play is inspired by my Swedish master Michael Meschke’s show The Apocalypse Trial, in which the angel and the devil hold court for human beings."
The 12th Ishara International Puppet Festival starts 24 February-4 March at Amphitheatre, India Habitat Centre, Delhi. The shows will also be presented at Epicentre in Gurgaon; and Tagore Theatre in Chandigarh. Timings vary. Click here for tickets and schedule.
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