Bangalore, August 9, 2013: The curtains are all set for a dramatic rise on Saturday. For the first time ever, Rangasthala, the 130-seater auditorium within the Namma Metro Rangoli Centre on MG Road will come alive to a powerful play, a work of intense passion and purpose crafted by Poile Sengupta.
“Mangalam,” the play, will be the trigger, a thunderous creative spark designed to unleash the enormous potential of the aptly placed Rangasthala. Already booked for 60 days in December and January 2014, the stage will in due course take on avatars as varied as puppetry to poetry, intimate theatre to interactive story-telling sessions.
Revving up the spirit of good-old theatre on this brand new stage, Poile Sengupta and her Theatre Club will unfurl a dramatised reading of Mangalam. Tackling issues of rape and sexual violence, Sengupta’s play will once again remind everyone of the trauma and horror of that December 16, 2012 episode that tragically befell a medical student in Delhi.
Theatre Club’s first performance at this venue will also test its acoustic and lighting capabilities. But Abhijit Sengupta from the group is already impressed. “It is amazing that in a relatively small space, they have managed to fit in a space that could work really well for intimate theatre, story-telling, dance and more. The acoustics works well,” he told Deccan Herald.
Saturday’s two-hour play will formally launch the creative space at 6.30 pm. But, coordinated by Surekha, it has already hosted three poetry recital sessions over the last three months on a smaller scale. “The response was good. We also want to create a space on that platform for traditional art forms such as puppetry. For Bangaloreans, this will be within walking distance once the Metro phase 1 is fully functional,” said U A Vasanth Rao, General Manager (Finance), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.
Rangasthala will also don a high-energy role on August 15. Fitting into the Namma Metro Rangoli Centre’s scheme of things for Independence Day, the place will transform into a performance hub, a space to celebrate Freedom in every splendour.
