Manam Theatre Festival: A month-long theatre smorgasbord

An exploration of identity across different segments of the society marked the second edition of the month-long Manam Theatre Festival in Hyderabad. Through solo performances, mythology plays, and children’s theatre, the festival explored the central theme of identity based on gender, sexuality, age, conventions, and social milieu. 

A one-of-its-kind theatre festival, Manam Theatre Festival offers an immersive and expansive experience into the world of theatre, including workshops and panel discussions with the visiting groups on the art and craft of theatre. The festival also offers people from different walks of life an opportunity to interact with the artists and be a part of the process. 

“We have seen a very different set of audiences for the workshops, panel discussions, and plays. The workshops are largely attended by people keen on learning more about theatre, while panel discussions mostly had spectators who wanted to engage with the play,” says Harika Vedula, Founder-Director of Manam Theatre Festival and Founder at The We_Us Collective. The collective is a part of the Almond House Foundation Initiative backed by the eponymous sweets maker, to provide a platform for arts and culture in the city of Hyderabad. 

As the shows were spread across the city at multiple locations, finding accessible and dedicated theatre spaces in Hyderabad was a challenge, she adds. 

An eclectic curation 

The theatre festival presented by The We_Us Collective as part of the Almond Foundation initiative featured an interesting curation of artists and subjects.  

There were performances by five theatre groups, including a collaboration with the Hyderabad Children’s Theatre Festival for a week-long performance for the younger audience. 

Children’s theatre comprised two plays by the Gillo Repertory Theatre – Mister Jeejeebhoy and the Birds, and The Ghost of the Mountains (a story from Ladakh). These were preceded by a workshop by Shaili Sathyu, Barkha Fatnani, and Purva Pathak of Gillo Repertory Theatre on 'making theatre for children'. 

“We measure outreach as being inclusive and held two days of screenings of the plays in government schools, bringing theatre closer to the students so that they could engage with it closely,” says Harika. 

The festival also presented He, a movement-based play by El-Salvadorian playwright Rodrigo Calderon, which explored themes of homosexuality, nostalgia and strife.

Project Darling by Sharanya Ramprakash was a hat-tip to the Kannada theatre character Khanavali Chenni who spoke about female sexuality, while Shikaar by Patchworks Ensemble explored society’s resistance to women who come across as strong or independent. 

Patchworks Ensemble’s The Gentlemen’s Club talked about the secret world of ‘drag kings’, women performing and celebrating masculinity, while Puducherry-based theatre group Adishakti’s plays Urmila and Nidravatwam explored mythology through innovative performances.