Event Collections

What would a writer do if one of his characters develops a mind of his own, when all other characters are perfectly happy going round and round within the boundaries that the writer has set for them? In "Evam Indrajit", Badal Sircar's abstract, semi-autobiographical play, a writer, who feels tortured by the need for creative expression in an undramatic world, tries to create a play with the audacious character, Indrajit, who "sees life realistically and dreams about it romantically." His muse, Manasi, remains elusive, and the characters that he summons are mundane and undramatic, no different from the people around him.  Indrajit, created in the image of the writer himself, stands outside routine existence. Failing in his attempts at tying Indrajit to a plot, the writer faces a nightmarish writer's block that pushes him into a moment of literary crisis. As he grapples with the existential crisis of Indrajit, we are presented at once with a macroscopic view of our own life, in which everything seems to be stuck in a repetitive loop, without purpose, without essence. "Evam Indrajit" is a timeless play that analyzes the question of identity, of the essence of life, against an apparently meaningless, existentialist backdrop. The audacious assertion of one's identity, one's essence, is what differentiates life from mere existence, random collections of particles of matter going round and round.Read More

After successful runs of Funny Money, Clean House, California Suite and Rumors, Playtonik Productions comes up with the next rib-tickling comedy. Hate Mail is an epistolary play, told through the two protagonists exchanging letters, in a hilarious search for self and love. It tells the story of Preston, a spoilt rich kid, who meets his match in Dahlia, an angst-filled artist. Their worlds collide when Preston sends a complaint letter that starts off a wild ride...Read More

A writer is brought in for interrogation regarding a series of gruesome child murders bearing striking similarities to his stories. Just like the manner of the killings, the investigating detectives are ruthless and show no mercy in trying to get a confession. They even drag the writer's mentally challenged brother amidst a tangle of fantastical revelations, whimsical stories and peeling layers of what seems to be the truth. Eventually, a punishment is delivered and justice is served. Perhaps. Almost. Well... Set in an imaginary totalitarian police-state, "The Pillowman" is a comedy so dark that the color black seems pale. Twisted, mysterious and outright funny in generous proportions, this play is bound to leave the audiences spellbound with its plot and imagery.Read More

Becca and Howie have everything a couple could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves them drifting perilously apart. RABBIT HOLE charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day. A play about mending a broken family which shifts perfectly from hilarity to grief without sentimentality ... entertaining and satisfying. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that's not just a departure but a revelation—an emotional and insightful examination of grief, laced with wit, compassion and searing honesty.Read More

Three Men, three benches, and a Park, located just about anywhere. An inevitable squabble for the choicest of seats. Each man's claim seems to be the most fundamental and, as always, there's never enough room for everyone. On the face of it, Park is a comedy  about three men in a park fighting for their individual space. However, the playful banter soon turns into a serious fight as questions of space, territory and ownership become fraught with tension. Park takes a light-hearted look at issues of identity and belonging that plague our day to day life.Read More

It is a rainy evening. A woman calls her brother to her farmhouse in the outskirts. She wants him to help her pack up a house. The tenant has just left and some new tenants are coming to check the place out. There is very apparent tension between this brother sister duo – not just from a class perspective (he is a carpenter and she is the Head of the Department of Literature at a prestigious college) but also in their lifestyles, philosophies and values. The evening progresses with both of them taking jibes at each other and making below the belt remarks to each other. Little by little they (and we) start discovering secrets and hidden aspects of their personalities. This is a play that’s refreshingly non sugar coated – it is sharp, fast paced and before you know it there’s a couple of sucker punches there that could knock you out.Read More

The Fate Of A Cockroach transports the audiences from a bathroom floor where Cockroaches rule, to a hard-working, middle class couple’s morning ritual. When the husband relates to a cockroach’s struggle, neither wife nor family doctor can liberate him from his pact. He proves to be the Playwright’s personified Cockroach . In the cockroach kingdom, there are self appointed officials, so called “gurus” of science and politics, who fail to come up with solutions to pressing problems. The king Cockroach declares, “In the whole of the cockroach kingdom, there is no cockroach that feeds another, everyone strives for their own daily bread.” Sound familiar? Have we become like cockroaches? The Playwright draws parallels between the two worlds. In both the worlds the women seem to be stronger, even though they are of the “weaker sex.” A thought provoking play.Read More

Natallia & Liudmila will play compositions by Russian romantic composers Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, who were each at the pinnacle of two very different schools of thought, about the future of music. The Piano Duo will start the evening with Tchaikovsky's "The Nutkracker " suite for 4 hands, followed by Natallia's solo rendition of October and Dumka. In the second half of program, audience will be presented with Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (piano solo). The concert will be accompanied by visual images, designed by Iryna Oksiuk, which will complement the musical part of the program.   Liudmila Alizarchyk Liudmila has been playing piano from the age of 7 years. She conducted studies in Minsk (Belarus Academy of Music). Liudmila is the founding member and arranger of Trio Belissimo, and was playing as Pianist in the Korean and Western fusion music band for many years. She has been performing classical music in various groups in Belarus, Korea and India, including The Majestic Orchestra and Wind Stream Brass Orchestra (Seoul, Korea), and various chamber ensembles. Liudmila lives in Bangalore where she works as a Music Professor, Piano and Vocal.   Natallia K Kapylova Natallia has been hailed as a concert pianist of exceptional, brilliant and dazzling ability. Her career is unique in spanning a huge range of musical settings. Breathtaking displays of classical and jazz masterpieces are stirred with love and passion. Exploration of different genres of music, old and new, is her forte. She commenced her piano training at the age of seven and was under the tutelage of Prof. Yushkevitch at the Belarus State Conservatory where she obtained a highest degree in Classical Piano Performance, Artist of Chamber Ensemble and Concertmaster Diploma. Natallia has worked as a Concertmaster at the Belarus Academy of Music and as a piano teacher at the Belarus College of Arts. She contributes generously of her time and talent to these institutes and the Concert Brigade of Belarus Society of Blind. Ever since she moved to India in 2002 , she has been working with select group of students to prepare them for the various programs, competitions and music examinations such as ABRSM, Trinity Guildhall and LCM , to name a few.Read More

“After missing his train from Howrah Station, a man decides to board it en route from one of the suburban stations of Kolkata. However, by the time he reaches the Platform#3, the train passes him by. In the middle of night, the platform is dark and deserted until he is joined by a mysterious old man and later, a young girl. Their divergent personalities, thoughts and interactions create a lot of firework in an unlikely place. The dark night is unprecedented for each one of them. One thing is for sure that after this encounter their lives are going to change forever. But all 3 of them have a secret and none of them really are as they appear to be.”Read More

Rukmini Vijayakumar will present a Bharatanatyam Maargam. A classical Margam is the traditional Bharatanatyam sequence of Bharatanatyam choreography set to Carnatic music, following a progression of complexity in music, rhythm and expression. It usually begins with an offering of flowers to the Gods, develops into a purely movement based piece, then it is followed by a Varnam which is the central elaborate piece of a bharatanatyam recital. This concludes the first half of the performance. After this there are one or two pieces that are expressive through “abhinaya”, and the performance ends with a tillana. Rukmini's performance will have a similar structure to the evening. The individual pieces of the evening however are chosen and choreographed a little differently from the traditional format.Read More