Theatre Olympics in city from Feb 24

The 8th Theatre Olympics would be held here from February 24. The city would get a chance to witness a series of 14 stimulating performances, including specially-invited plays from renowned theatre maestros such as ‘Galpo Hekim Saheb’ (Manoj Mitra), ‘Ishq Malangi’ (Mustaq Kak), and ‘Shri Ram Bijoy’ (Dulal Roy) and international productions ‘Mohajoner Nao’  (Sudip Chakraborthy, Bangladesh), ‘Matbring’ (Yusuf Hasan Arko, Bangladesh) and ‘The Suspended Thread’ (Pino Di Buduo, Italy).

The other plays lined up till March 10 are ‘Aadi Vidrohi Tilka’ (Sheikh Kairuddin), ‘Behad Nafrat Ke Dino Mein’ (Daulat Vaid), ‘Streer Patra’ (Seema Biswas), ‘Man of the Heart’ (Suman Mukhopadhyaya), ‘Katha Karnabhar’ (Suman Saha), ‘Hiyar Majhe’ (Kingsuk Bandyopadhyay), ‘Hojang Taret’ (Oasis Sougaijam), and ‘Elephant In The Room’ (Yuki Ellias).

The Bhubaneswar segment of the mega event is being hosted by the National School of Drama in collaboration with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, and the Department of Tourism and Culture, Odisha.

“Bhubaneswar is one of the co-hosts of the world’s largest theatre festival. The event will be held at Rabindra Mandap, Bhanja Kala Mandap and CSIR auditorium,” Tourism and Culture Commissioner-cum-Secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi informed.

The 51-day-long theatre extravaganza, which was inaugurated by Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu at the Red Fort in New Delhi on February 17, will span 17 Indian cities with 450-odd performances, seminars and youth forums. As many as 25,000 artistes from 31 countries are participating.

This is for the first time that India is hosting the largest international theatre festival.  With the theme, ‘Flag of Friendship’, the 8th edition of the event is celebrating universal friendship and human values by showcasing theatre traditions of India and the world.