Voices of women are heard loud and clear in the 10th edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK). Seven of the 16 international plays and six of the 12 national plays are directed by women.
These women have chosen strong themes and presentations as creative responses against oppression, intolerance, growing violence (sexual, religious and caste-based), and State control.
Israeli director Einat Weizman made a strong impression with the opening play Palestine Year Zero, which portrayed mass displacement of Palestinians during the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Sophie Besse (U.K.)’s play Borderline, a satire, follows the journey of seven refugees from Sudan, Syria, and Afghanistan living in the Calais Jungle. The storyline is based on the refugee actors’ own experiences.
Two Iranian women directors are at the festival with their compelling works — Manus by Nazanin Sahamizadeh and Voicelessness by Azade Shahmiri. Based on a real story, Manus uses the style of verbatim theatre to narrate the experiences of eight Iranian refuges to Australia, who are imprisoned on island prisons in Manus and Nauru for more than four years. Ms. Sahamizadeh’s Eye for an Eye, about an acid attack victim and her struggles to find justice, had drawn a lot of attention.
Voicelessness is about the search of a young woman to unravel the truth behind her grandfather’s disappearance. Sara Matchett from South Africa, whose two plays Walk: South Africa (inspired by Walk by Maya Krishnan Rao) and Womb of Fires will be staged, says the former is produced in response to the brutality of gender-based violence and rape culture in India and South Africa in 2012-2013. South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape and sexual violence in the word. It is necessary to challenge the silencing and marginalisation of women’s stories, she says.
Laila Solimans Ahmed, Egyptian director, is at the festival with a compelling performance Zig Zig.
Powerful solos directed and performed by Nimmy Raphael (Nidrawathvam); Maya Krishnan Rao (Khol Do and Walk), and Jyothi Dogra (Notes on Chai) represent strong presence in national theatre.
