If you love theatre, but can’t decide if you want to watch tragedy, comedy, tragi-comedy, romance, suspense or horror, there’s a solution. Watch them all, and in the span of two hours. That’s what Short+Sweet South India 2016 offers in the city in the month of July.
Short+Sweet Theatre is a festival of 10-minute theatre, which started in Australia in 2002, and is now held annually in 30 cities across seven countries. This year’s is the fifth edition in Chennai, and is presented by Prakriti Foundation and The Blu Lotus Foundation, in association with the Alliance Française of Madras.
The first week featured plays written by Balakumaran Murugesan, Syama Chilukuri and Jagadeesh Kanna. Directors included Pooja Devariya (of Iraivi fame), Bhargav Ramakrishnan and Anand Ravichandran. The audience vote for best play went to The Ordinary City written by Balajee Ge, directed by Janardhanan Raghavan, with Ayan Shukla playing Varun, who is new to Chennai and eventually falls in love with the place.
A panel of judges selected two plays to move to the finals, which will be held on July 27, 29, 30 and 31. These were Pooja Devariya’s First Day First Show written by Arjun Chidambaram, who also acted in the play along with Sainath Saikrishnan and Naveen George Thomas, and Bhargav Ramakrishnan’s Shakespeare — As You Like It , written by Balakumaran Murugesan, starring Shravan Ramakrishnan, Lakshmi Priyaa C. and Sarvesh Sridhar. Kalieaswari Srinivasan — whose film Dheepan bagged the prestigious Palme d’Or award at Cannes in 2015 — played the role of an Olympic athlete in Jagadeesh Kanna’s monologue, Never Give Up . There will be a repeat performance of the play during the finals.
This week’s schedule
Date and time: July 13, 15, 16 and 17, 7 p.m.
Venue: Édouard Michelin Auditorium, Alliance Française, Nungambakkam
The Goon
Playwright: Pete Malicki
Director: Ramakrishna Dhanasekaran
Objectum Sexuality
Playwright: Ron Burch
Director: Meera Sitaraman
Who Am I
Playwright and director: R. Baskar (Koothu-p-Pattarai)
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Playwright and director: Drishya Gautam (The Stirfry Collective)
Nee
Playwright: John Pradeep
Director: Udhaykumar Gunasekaran
Real or Reel
Playwright and director: Sabarish Menon (The Drama Troupe)
Damayanthi
Playwright: Janardhan Raghavan
Director: Guru Narayan Chandrasekaran
Making a Supershero
Playwright and director: Bhargav Prasad
Sweep Sweep
Playwright: Balakrishnan Venkataraman (Theatre Nisha)
Director: Janani Narasimhan
27 f 5 11
Playwright: Shruti Parasuram
Director: Sunil Vishnu (Evam Lab)
The event is ticketed at Rs.200 per day and can be booked online www.eventjini.com. For details, call 87544 15362 or 86086 85156.