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WIP SPECIALS | THEATRE PREMIERE | MAATI KATHA (Earth Stories) | HINDI | (60 mins)
September 29, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
RECOMMENDED AGE GROUP: 12+ years
LANGUAGE: Hindi
In the dangerous and magical land of Sunderbans, living is about a fragile balance – between land and water, forest and field, domestic and wild, human and human, human and nonhuman, calm and storm. As each stakes claim, each encroaches upon the other’s space, survival is possible only through stories and beliefs. Bonbibi is said to have come to the ‘Land of the 18 Tides’ to help the people, tigers, deer, crabs, trees, soil and water… all that cohabit there. But, only if we agree to her terms. And when she looks away, devastation follows. In this Object Theatre performance, clay dolls from the region tell contemporary stories of their land. Stories as local as they are global.
Maati Katha is a play that emerges from the soil. It draws inspiration from the lives & philosophies of the people of Sunderbans, from its folk legends and stories, its rich performance tradition of Bonbibi Jatrapala, and music traditions like Bhatiyali, Baul, Jhumur; marrying it to contemporary object and material theatre practices. Through the play, Sunderbans emerge as a reflective surface for worldwide concerns.
The performance came to life as part of a larger ethnographic project that researches traditional doll making practices of West Bengal, a state in East India; exploring histories and contemporary stories surrounding rural Bengal’s myriad doll-making practices and its linkages to tangible and intangible heritage conservation.
DATES & TIMINGS:
22nd Sep : 7.00 pm (English)
23rd Sep: 7.00 pm (English)
24th Sep: 6.00 pm (Hindi)
29th Sep: 7.00 pm (Hindi)
30th Sep: 7.00 pm (English)
1st Oct: 6.00 pm (Hindi)