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Manaveli Performing Arts Group ‘s Eleventh Festival of Theatre and Dance

Manaveli Performing Arts Group, Canada ‘s premier Tamil theatre group, is to hold its eleventh annual Festival of Theatre and Dance at the Markham Theatre for Performing Arts, Markham ON, on Sunday July 18. The festival will consist of two shows, at 12:30p.m and 6:00p.m. Tickets cost $ 15.00

As in previous festivals, leading Tamil Canadian artistes will come together to stage five plays and a modern dance performance. Since its inception in 1996, Manaveli has staged 31 plays, many of which have been hailed as path breaking. Through it ‘s Festivals, Manaveli has also introduced acclaimed playwrights, such as Eugene Ionesco, Anton Checkov, Samuel Beckett, Jean Janet and Vaclav Havel, to the Tamil audiences. The Eleventh Festival will continue in this tradition and will stage a play by Samuel Beckett, and another by his Irish compatriot Brian Friel.

Six acts at the 2004 festival

The first act is Samuel Beckett ‘s Act Without Words I. This is the second time Manaveli will be presenting a play by Beckett to the Tamil audiences. The first was the widely acclaimed classic Waiting for Godot. Sathya Thillainathan makes her directorial debut with this play. Sathya, a high school student, has been a part of many Manaveli productions before as an actress.

In this, the first of his two mimes, aptly titled Act Without Words I &II, Beckett presents in very simple, stylized form pictures of certain aspects of the human condition. It emphasizes the problem of man/woman ‘s relationship with an external world that is beyond his/her control and that frustrates all his/her efforts to make it habitable. Act Without Words I was first performed in 1957. It carries its protagonist to a point at which he/she finally learns the futility of all the hopes the world holds out to him/her and is able to face this and to resist all temptations to return to them.

Time Machines is a play by well-known Indian writer Dr. Indira Parthasarathy. It deals with the urban reality of ‘rat race ‘ and the effect it has on human relationships and human souls. Dushy Gnanapragasam returns to the festival as director after his critically acclaimed directorial debut with Pushcart Peddlers (by Academy Award nominee Murray Schisgal) at last year ‘s festival.

Time Machines ‘ protagonist is a man consumed by his self-perceived duties and priorities. He functions like a machine as if his only goal in life is to get everything done ‘on time ‘. In the process, he ignores his psychological needs for the benefit of satisfying his physical and fiscal needs. Eventually, time runs out, and unable to keep up, the machine breaks down.

V. Sornalingam ‘s Sprouts Again deals with the despair and depression that sets in with two seniors who are forced by circumstances to be dependant on their children whom they still love but feel like they are strangers to. It raises critical question about traditional Tamil family values, as it explores the realities recent immigrant seniors face in a country that is alien to them. The two protagonists in this play can be found in any neighbourhood in Toronto, which houses seniors who are new immigrants. With little or no income and often with a lack of language skills, they feel themselves a burden on their children. And when a careless harsh word or two is thrown at them in haste, their pride and dignity is shattered, and their sense of self-worth challenged.

Sornalingam is a popular Tamil Canadian play write and director. His plays are known for their bold treatment if social issues that are very real and present in the fast growing Tamil Canadian community. In this his first collaboration with Manaveli, he is directing his own script.

Parallels is a modern dance composition that looks at the eternal bond between a mother and a daughter. It brings to life the issues that put a strain on this bond and the events than strengthen it. Tharshini Varapragasam and Prashanthy Pathmanathan, both of whom are accomplished classical dancers, will be choreographing and dancing.

The dance traces the lives of two women, a mother and a daughter, through various stages in their life. Both Tharshini and Prashanthy have been associated with Manaveli since the 9th festival.

Legendary Tamil Canadian actor, play-write, and director K. S. Balachandran is directing his Tamil adaptation of Brian Friel ‘s American Welcome. The adaptation is titled Adopted Child and is a satire about the treatment a lesser-known writer ‘s work gets from a popular director. Balachandran has been involved with the past festivals in various capacities as actor, play-write, and supervising director, and has been an inspiration for many young Tamil Candaian directors and actors. He continues his collaboration with Manaveli in the eleventh festival.

In the original play by Friel, an American director tries to distort the script of an overwhelmed European writer, to the point where the writer does not recognize his own script. The director ‘s excuse is that he is trying to make the script more appealing to Americans. In Balachandran ‘s adaptation, the director is Indian and the writer Sri Lankan. It pokes gentle fun at the ‘big brother – little brother ‘ relationship adjacent countries like Canada-US, and Sri Lanka-India have. It also makes light of the very real situation of ‘watering down of literature for mass consumption ‘.

The final act is a play by popular Indian play write and screenwriter Thopil Bhasi. Capital is a play set in late 1940s, in the South Indian state of Kerala. It was a time when socialist activists in the state were being brutally hunted down by the government. This play deals with the sacrifices people make to protect their loved ones and to defend the choices their loved ones make. The play is directed by M. Suthan, who ‘s previous directorial venture International Slaves earned him both fame and critical acclaim.

Bhasi (1924-1992), one of the most popular modern Malayalam play writes, played an important role in the Indian freedom movement against British colonialism. After Indian independence, he left the Congress and identified himself with the socialists. His first play You Made Me A Communist is said to have been staged for over 600 times. His play Capital is believed to draw from his own experience as an activist absconding from government forces.

For further details and media requests contact: Dushy at 416 995 2984