Koothu-P-Pattarai

Koothu-p-Pattarai takes pleasure in welcoming you to the inaugural presentation of its new play Vikramaathithan Kadhai.

Script & Direction : Mr.N.Muthuswamy

Lighting : V.Sundar

Music : M.Ramakrishnan

Dates : 4^th to 13^th March 2011

Time : 7 pm

Venue :‘Koothambalam Meenakshi’

ADDRESS

Nani Janaki

16/58, 3^rd Main Road, Sri Iyyappa Nagar, Chennai – 600 092

All are welcome

About the play :Once up on a time the story of ‘Vikramaathithya’ was very popular in Tamilnadu but today the entertainment media has been dominated by themes purveyed by cinema, TV and radio. However, the popularity of Vikramaathithya’s story has not dimmed even now. When Koothu-p-Pattarai was approached by an NGO for designing an awareness programme on HIV / AIDS prevention, we recommended Akkur Elumalai the Theru-k-Koothu artist to them for conducting the programme. For this purpose we scripted Vikramaathithya’s story for presentation in Theru-k-Koothu format for five nights of two and half hours duration each day.

When we thought of a new theatre production for this year, Vikramaathithya story came to our mind. Sreedevi’s newly formed theatre group Devriksha had already enacted one part of the story. We therefore decided to stage the other part of the story beginning from Bojaraaja ascending the throne, one of the supporting sculptures narrating Chandravarman’s story, Vikramaathithya’s coronation and ending with Indira presenting the throne to Vikramaathithya. Thus, the story of Vikramaathithya covers the episodes relating to the verbal interaction with the sculptures by Bojaraaja and Vikramaathithya while ascending the throne.

Koothu-p-Pattarai also intends to enact the third part of the story and also hopes to produce the complete story of Vikramaathithya of five hours duration covering all the three parts. Thus, Koothhu-p-Pattarai wants to revive Vikramaathithya story which was once very popular in Tamilnadu in a modern theatre format. It will vie with similar long productions enacted in other parts of the world. It is our ambition to inaugurate this production with a grand festival.

ABOUT THE playwright and DIRECTOR : Mr.N. MUTHUSWAMY

Mr.N.Muthuswamy the playwright and director of the play is also Founder for the Koothu-p-Pattarai. From the late 1960s he has been writing plays for the stage. The plays that began to take shape were driven not by a linear narrative, but by a unique conversational logic that revealed the playwright’s penchant for creating poetic and highly dramatic pictures onstage. His achievement was to simultaneously revive traditional folk theatre and create a new idiom for the contemporary stage based on movement and sound as the main vehicles of storytelling. He has presented his plays in major cities of India and also outside the country. He has been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Academi Award in 1999-2000, Tamil Nadu Government’s Award for Best Short Stories of 2005 and Podhigai Award for “Theatre” in January 2007 and Kalaimaamani award of Tamilnadu Government-2010.

Director and Playwright, Mr N Muthuswamy’s note:

Though this play had received a production grant from the Central governmental year ago, it has materialized only now due to a severe shortage of funds and the unforgiving monsoon floods, which delayed our production by two months. However, in the meantime, our actors have been continuously exposed to workshops and other training relevant to the play. When I completed the first draft of the play, I was disappointed with its straight narrative pattern. But when it was taken up by our actors for readings and rehearsal, it was transformed completely and assumed its current design, very different from my original conception. The actors have been involved in shaping each and every scene to its current format. A novel dimension was added to the play by actors inter-changing characters within the play, i.e. no single actor portrays a single character. Actors continuously change roles throughout the play, thus following the age old idiom – “The story and characters never change; only actors change”. This is a new attempt for me as a writer and director and for our group as well. I sincerely hope that it is received with as much enthusiasm as with which we have created it.

KOOTHU-P-PATTARAI