Tiatr's Turnaround

THE 27th Tiatr Competition organised by the Kala Academy this year seemed to have attracted a fair amount of response. Moreover, even the calibre of the performances put up by the competing groups appeared to be fairly good.

The competition took off with the first performance on November 22 while the last tiatr will be staged on December 17. The good response probably is due to the fact that the Kala Academy has changed its mode of compensation for the participating groups, who now get 75 per cent of the gate collection for their performance, besides another sum for other expenses. As many as 15 groups had entered the competition.

Nit Konnank chuklea (Machi Mogi, Morjim), Suzette (Kala Niketan, Majorda), Vanvas (Dramatic Troupe of Ribandar), Ek Sonvsar Kounchecho (Machie Mogi, Majorda), Rogtak Tanelolo (Merces Club), Kosle Goenkar Ami (Theatre Art and Cultural Training Institute), figured among the varied entries.

Obviously, the judging seems to have shifted its focus from the traditional elements of the tiatr to better performances, direction and stagecraft. We just watched two of the dramas--Suzette, directed by Michael Gracias) and Rogtak Tanelolo, written by Avito Fernandes and directed by Jayendra Haldankar.

Both the dramas seemed to have put in sufficient stress on production techniques. Michael Gracias had a fine storyline and dialogues of literary worth in Suzette. The acting was good but somehow they didn't perform as they usually do.

In Rogtak Tanelolo, one witnessed excellent direction, props and lighting. The story was rather off-beat, with no romance whatsoever and minimum of comedy. However, Jayendra's excellent direction had the caste emoting wonderfully. Among the noteworthy roles well were that of the mother, enacted by Rita Fernandes, and of the village priest by Domnic Araujo. Mathew D'Souza did justice to his role of a joker. In the lead role of Newton, a young man who yearned to become a doctor but his father willed that he should be a musician, Lippu Rodrigues was fairly good.

From the remarks of those who had been attending the competition events regularly, one realised that there were equally fine performances by the other groups too. Incidentally, Moghe, who has quite a few Hindi, Marathi and English plays to his credit, was among the better directors. Tomazinho Cardozo's troupe, which has been putting up worthy appearances and lifting several prizes over the years, was missing this time.

For the Rogtak Tanelolo performance, the Kala Academy theatre was packed to capacity. Even the following day's show was booked well in advance. All this seems to indicate that Konkani audiences are gradually changing their taste and expect better performances rather than just watch their popular actors on the stage. The positive development augurs well for the traditional Konkani tiatr while the skeptics have been predicting its end after having attained a century since the very first Konkani tiatr "Italian Bhurgo" was staged in Mumbai.

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