Mahakavi’s Puthirathoru Veedu and Ionesco’s The Chairs to be plays at Manaveli’s Ninth Festival

This entry is part [part not set] of 30 in the series 20020302_Issue


Mahakavi’s The House That Mayan Built (Puthiyathoru Veedu) and Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs will be the two plays to be performed by the Manaveli Performing Arts Group, Canada’s premier Tamil theatre group, at its Ninth Festival of Theatre and Dance, to be held on March 16th and 17th at the Markham Theatre, near Toronto.

Selvan, a veteran actor with experience in directing Tamil plays, will direct the play under the directorial guidance of K S Balachandran, one of Tamil world’s eminent directors with a number of plays and a film to his directorial credit.

Considered as one of the pioneers of modern Tamil poetry and theatre, the late Mahakavi was known for his work on introducing the rhymes of ordinary speech into his poetry. He authored five epics, three stage plays in verse and ten radio plays.

The Chairs of the Romanian-French playwright Ionesco, also known as the Father of the Absurd, portrays the story of an elderly couple’s adventures on passing on their life experience to the world symbolised by a proliferation of chairs that were however not filled by the expected guests.

P Vigneswaran, a former director of the Tamil service of the Sri Lankan state Television Corporation (Rupavahini), has ‘tamilised’ and will direct the play, written in 1952 and that for some symbolises Ionesco’s own frustrations in gaining recognition for his lifetime work as a dramatist. Mr. Vigneswaran has scripted and directed many plays, including Imaginations Are Not Disturbed, the first tele-drama in the Tamil-speaking world.

Following the huge success of the Eight Festival’s two shows, held last year at the Markham Theatre, the Ninth Festival will be held in three shows.

The Ninth Festival is a continuation of Manaveli’s aim of offering a channel to the creative work of Tamil artists as well as introducing noted western playwrights to the Tamil-speaking world. So far, the group has ‘Tamilised’ and performed plays of Samuel Beckett, Jean Janet, Anton Checkov and Vaclav Havel.

Since its inception in 1996, Manaveli has staged more than 25 plays, which have been hailed by the Tamil literary world as path breaking.

Tickets cost $ 15.00, $10.00

For further details, or for interview requests, please contact: Senthil at 416. 615.1934

E-mail: info@manaveli.org

Website: www.manaveli.org

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