After months, Chennai’s theatre scene goes live again

CHENNAI: With the lockdown lifted, the city’s theatre has come alive again. Two new productions in English and Tamil are set to be staged in the coming days.
First up is the one and a half-hour musical ‘Ramses – The Fall of Pharaoh’, to be staged this weekend at Alliance Francaise, and then a fortnight later, Komal Theatre will present ‘En Veedu En Kanavan En Kuzhanthai’.Produced by Dharini, the play is in celebration of the golden jubilee of her father & playwright Komal Swaminathan’s Stage Friends Drama Troupe, which was formed in 1971.
“Ramses is based on the Book of Exodus from the Bible. It’s the story of the love-hate relationship between Moses and his brother Ramses, the king of Egypt,” says B Charles, whose Chennai Art Theatre is producing the show.
“Expect a lot of special effects and illusions,” says the play’s director and script-writer Denver Anthony Nicholas, who adds that the cast has been raring to go since May when the city went back into lockdown. “I wrote this script in 2005, but at that time called it Moses. When I revived it, I decided to focus on Ramses. The play is about how the two brothers are torn between one’s love and duty to God, and the other’s to country.”
Dharini, meanwhile, is getting set to produce ‘En Veedu En Kanavan En Kuzhanthai’, which was originally staged in 1980 starring veteran actor Manorama. “My father wrote the play for the film actor. She had called him saying she wanted to play a protagonist as she was tired of being typecast in comedian roles in films. So, he wrote this play where she starred as the head of a family,” Dharini says.
The play was a hit, and has been staged 300 times across India, and recorded and telecast on Doordarshan as well. Komal Swaminathan wrote 27 scripts for his troupe as well as others, some of which his daughter plans to stage for the 50th year celebrations.
“Rehearsals were a challenge because we had to do them on Zoom as well as over the telephone. A lot is riding on this play because Manorama was simply brilliant in the role,” Dharini says.
While Ramses is a ticketed show and will be staged on Saturday and Sunday at Alliance Francaise, En Veedu En Kanavan En Kuzhanthai is not ticketed and will be staged at Narada Gana Sabha auditorium on October 1, 2, and 3. Ticketed shows of the play will be held in November.