The Rangayana repertory in Mysuru is preparing to stage Samskara , based on the landmark novel by U.R. Ananthamurthy, exactly 50 years after it was published and 45 years after it was made into a film.
The play will be staged June-end to mark the silver jubilee of Nataka Karnataka Rangayana, the only State-run theatre repertory in the country. The attempt to adapt Samskara to theatre gains significance, as it is the first major production by Rangayana after nearly four years. Rangayana has been surviving by repeating its earlier productions.
Samskara had created ripples in the cultural scene of Karnataka in the Sixties and Seventies with its critiques of caste.
Writer and critic O.L. Nagabhushana Swamy is adopting the novel to play form with the support of senior artists of Rangayana. The play will be directed by Rangayana director H. Janardhan, popularly known as Jenni.
As many as 30 senior actors of Rangayana are essaying various roles in the play. Two pivotal characters in the novel, Praneshacharya and Narayanappa, are being essayed by Jagadish Manevarte and Hulugappa Kattimani. “I am using Hindustani ragas to enhance the intensity of the play,” says Mr. Jenni, who is also the music director of the play.
An attempt was made to adapt the novel to theatre in early 80s by Samudaya with G.K. Govinda Rao and Lakshmi Chandrashekar in the lead. Mr. Jenni, a part of the experiment then, said that this attempt is different from the earlier one. “While the entire novel was adapted to the stage in the previous attempt, now it is a play written by O.L. Nagabhushanaswamy to suit to the needs of theatre,” he said.
