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Tales of two festivals
TWO MAJOR theatre productions, one imported and one the Madras Players', scheduled for January and February, were expected to sandwich Madras's first English language Theatre Festival, which it was hoped would, thereafter, annually become a part of the Madras Season. But the promised Theatre Festival has in the last minute, been "postponed" — and that is sad, to say the least.
Half a dozen of the city's leading English language theatre groups were to put up plays over 10 days of theatre during the festival that was to be held under the aegis of the British Council. Originally, a sponsorship of Rs. 1 lakh per group was expected from the corporate sector, but with the downturn in the economy, this was reduced to Rs. 35,000 per group, less than Rs. 2.5 lakhs in all. But with the groups all set to begin rehearsals, they received the news just a few weeks ago that even that amount was too much in present times and the sponsors would certainly be more generous when times got better. And so Madras will have to do with two major productions, but not with its own theatre festival that would have gone a long way towards encouraging the city's smaller English language theatre groups.
More successful has been the mela organised by the Mylapore Times in the Mada Streets around the Kapaleeswarar Temple. Commendable has been the neighbourhood paper's efforts in getting the streets pedestrianised for three hours each day over a weekend to enable a kolam competition, a photography exhibition, a pottery demonstration and folk dances to be held and the temple to play host to a concert of classical music. The crowds that turned up to watch all the fun at the mela — and especially those who stopped to look at the exhibition of pictures of Mylapore's not-so-distant past which has vanished in so short a time — demonstrated that there is certainly street level interest in culture and heritage if it can be entertainingly packaged. It also demonstrated that such efforts could easily garner the support and understanding of police and other officialdom as well as that of vendors and bigger commercial interests.
I mention this because for several months now, I've been listening to the local Heritage and Tourism Committee of a national organisation talking about wanting to hold a Chennai Festival annually from January 1 to 16, as an adjunct of the Madras Season and promote it, first, to attract domestic tourists and, then, reach out to the foreign traveller (several of whom were quite enthralled by the Mylapore Mela). The Chennai Festival was originally suggested for this year, but now they're talking about next year. Meanwhile, I hope they're taking note of what a neighbourhood newspaper has been able to achieve.
Note of that should certainly give the organisers the confidence to go through with their plans for festivals on three other stretches of Madras road. One discussed was Pantheon Road — with the Museum Complex, including its lawns — the focus of a cultural and arts festival, with the street also offering the opportunity for a shopping and dining experience. The second stretch suggested was Cathedral Road-Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, focussing on classical music and dance, and the city's best dining and shopping experience.
And the third area suggested was the Marina for some open air entertainment and food courts. With the Mylapore Mela also thrown in, this could make the Madras Margazhi quite a fun-filled and cultural experience, if only the talkers would get down to doing things and the authorities to co-operating.
Together they might put Madras on the tourist map of India.
S.MUTHAIAH
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