Play: The Lady of Burma
Author: Richard Shannon
Actor: Rukmini Vijayakumar
Sound Design: Pallavi Arun
Lighting: Arun Murthy
Director: Prakash Belawadi
Troupe: Radha Kalpa & Centre for Film and Drama

Performances are at 7.30 PM, on October 6 & 7, 2009, at RANGASHANKARA.
Tickets are priced at Rs 150. For reservations please call ANIL
RAMACHANDRA - 98456 02265

Richard Shannon’s THE LADY OF BURMA is a play set in the aftermath of the
Depayin attack in Burma in 2003, an assassination attempt aimed to remove
one of the greatest surviving champions of democracy in the world - Aung San
Suu Kyi. As Desmond Tutu says of her: “She is my pin-up! She inspires me
with her gentle determination. Men, armed to the teeth, are running scared
of her. She has already won and they know they have lost.”

The Burmese leader survived the attack in which 100 of her followers were
beaten to death, apparently with the full support of one of the most brutal
military dictatorships in the world. Burma is ruled by fear with over 1,000
political prisoners, child soldiers, slave labour and suppression of
minorities with intimidation, rape and ethnic cleansing.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been put under house arrest in Rangoon since 1989, when
her party NLD won a landslide victory, against all odds, in the elections.
Now in her 20th year of detention, she lives in solitary confinement. She is
not allowed to see family or friends. Her phone line is cut and her post is
intercepted.

The play itself is designed as a one-actor performance and set in the
hospital wing of Insein, Rangoon’s largest prison and is a journey into her
memories.

Rukmini Vijayakumar, in the solo designed for speech and stylised movement,
is trained in Bharatanatyam from the age of eight, in Western Classical
Ballet and in Ballet and Modern dance at The Boston Conservatory, one of the
top performing arts schools in the USA. She also has trained in Alexander
technique, laban movement analysis, choreography, jazz, tap, African dance
and several other movement forms. Rukmini also studied acting at the New
York Film Academy. She has recently starred in lead roles in two Tamil
films, gaining acclaim for the delineated characters.

Centre for Film and Drama is always eager to bring to performance
interesting and engaging texts from around the world that resonate with
context and concerns of our age. Sound design for the play is by Pallavi
Aru. Design and direction, by Prakash Belawadi. The play is presented by
performance group Radha Kalpa.

Here is a theatre production that takes on one of society’s oldest
institutions: marriage. The fear of marriage, failed marriages and rising
divorces are the order of day today, but are these markers of social
decadence or social evolution? Wed-lock is a performance that invites the
audience to participate as well as ’spect-actors’, bringing about a
discussion forum that blends with theatre as a medium.

Consisting of two plots, Wed-lock explores the lower-middle class society
(in a regional dialect) as well as the upper class where marriage means
different things in different social milieus. Is there a place for love,
companionship in marriage? Are these words hollow? On the other hand, for
this class, is marriage a pragmatic, capitalistic enterprise? These are just
some of the questions that Wed-Lock seeks to raise, and perhaps answer.

For details, call 43389292

Play title: A FUNNY THING CALLED WAR
Venue: Opus in the Creek*, Whitefield Road, Bangalore.
On: 10th October (Saturday), 7:00 pm

Introduction and Background:
There’s humour in everything around us. And what better proof than this
laughter riot of a play, set bang in the middle of World War - I. Titled ‘A
FUNNY THING CALLED WAR’, this play by Tahatto brings on stage, one of the
most loved fictional characters in British entertainment history - Captain
Blackadder, along with the quirkiest, unlikeliest, and most lovable bunch of
characters you’ll ever see. This play explores the simplicity of the early
1900s and the absurdity of war.

For tickets and other information, call 9901091091/9945799224, or visit
www.tahatto.com

*Exact address of Opus in the Creek:
No. 2, Doddanekkundi Industrial Area, Whitefield Road, Mahadevapura,
Bangalore.

Directions if coming from Marathahalli:
Take left from the Kundanahalli signal and keep moving forward until you
spot the Shell petrol bunk on the left side. (Along the way, you will cross
RxDx Hospital and the WNS office complex on your right side.) Opus in the
Creek is opposite to the Shell petrol bunk.