Theatre Olympics kicks off in city

The 8th Theatre Olympics kicked off here on Saturday. State Culture Department Secretary Manoharan Panigrahi, ICAS Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Padmalochan Sahoo and eminent theatre personality Ajit Narayan Das were present among others in the inauguration ceremony.

As many as 14 plays are slated to be staged at the Rabindra Mandap, Bhanj Kala Mandap and CSIR from February 24 to March 10, presenting international, regional, and English plays. Over the fortnight, theatre lovers in the city can watch three plays each in invited and international categories, apart from eight plays from different parts of the country.

The opening play in Bhubaneswar was GalpoHekim Saheb, an ‘invited’ Bengali play by veteran theatre artiste, playwright and director Manoj Mitra, a well-known name in the theatre world. Other plays staged during the period include invited performances such as“IshqMalangi” (MushtaqKak), and “Shri Ram Bijoy” (Dulal Roy) and international plays such as “Mohajoner Nao(The Boat of Infinity)” (Sudip Chakraborthy, Bangladesh), “Matbring” (Yusuf Hassan Arko), and The SuspendedThread (Pino Di Buduo, Italy).

The other plays to be staged during the festival are Aadi VidrohiTilka (Sheikh Khairuddin), BehadNafratKe Dino Mein (DaulatVaid), Streer Patra (SeemaBiswas), Man Of The Heart (SumanMukhopadhyaya), Katha Karnabhar (SumanSaha), HiyarMajhe (KingsukBandyopadhyay), HojangTaret (Oasis Sougaijam), and Elephant In The Room (Yuki Ellias).