Twist In The Folktale

Each of the playwrights in Twists In The Folktale takes a folktale andturns it into a contemporary experimental play, intervening in thetraditional material and reshaping conventions from an urban perspective.Although the folk and rural elements remain embedded in the body of thenarratives, it is interesting to note the shifts and intersections which occurin the process of rendering folktales as present-day performative texts.Jokumaraswami by leading Kannada playwright and poet Chandrasekhar Kambar isa vibrant, earthy play which creatively reworks the folk myth of a phallic godof fertility into a powerfully contemporary anti-feudal message. Pebet isa folktale about a mother bird fighting to protect her children from a predatorycat politicized by H. Kanhailal, who transforms this familiar story into astruggle against the political and cultural colonization of Manipur. CharandasChor by veteran playwright/director Habib Tanvir, performed by NayaTheatre's Chattisgarh folk artists, is a contemporary Indian classic depictingthe irrepressible folk hero and 'honest thief', Charandas, a Robin Hood figurewho charms his ways into everyone's hearts.