Dhawala Bheeshana

‘Dhawala Bheeshana’ in Delhi this week

Multi-awarded play by Dharmasiri Bandaranayake ‘Dhawala Bheeshana’ is to be staged at the 15th Bharat Rang Mahotsav in New Delhi, India on January 11. Later the play is to be staged at a parallel festival in Jaipur on January 13 at the Rabhindramanch Theatre. The group of Dhawala Bheeshana consists of 20 members are to fly to India for the performances.

Organized by the National School of Drama in India, Bharat Rang Mahotsav was established a decade ago by the National School of Drama to stimulate the growth and development of theatre across the country.

Originally a national festival showcasing the work of the most creative theatre workers in India, it has evolved to international scope, hosting theatre companies from around the world, and is now the largest theatre festival of Asia.
A series of wrap around programmes around the festival include – sight specific, installation based, music and dance theatre projects and performances, a lecture, interactive sessions with the directors, a seminar on “ Temporal spaces, corporeality and embodiment in Tagore’s theatrical works” and five photographic exhibitions.

Bharat Rang Mahotsav is accompanied by a shorter festival in a second city, with selections from the main repertoire, extending the scope of the Mahotsav and sharing its fare with theatre lovers outside Delhi. The second festival has to date been held in Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal, Chennai and Amritsar. This year it travels to Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Originally produced in 1988, “Dhawala Beeshana” a Sinhala translation of “Men without Shadows” by French playwright Jean Paul Satre won nine awards including Best Director, Best Actress, Best Set Designing and Best Lighting at the State Drama Festival in year 1989.

This play has been staged over 975 times since 1988 and the new production has been staged 23 times, since September 2012.