Theatre

In the heart of Auroville’s The Learning Community’s (TLC) base camp, where the gentle whispers of the wind were rustling along with the vibrant hum of creativity, a humble spectacle unfolded during the sacred week of Auroville’s Birthday.

Having arrived in Auroville as a child with her parents in 1968, Marta provides a unique perspective as a member of the first generation of children within our community.

Auroville is a place of experimentation where the new can emerge and ‘something else’ can flourish. On January 19 and 20, in CRIPA, 70 children from Auroville schools, including Deepam school for children with disabilities and Auroville outreach schools, performed a one-of-a-kind co-creation titled ‘Every Soul is Unique’.

The Auroville Youth Center’s (YC) annual gathering, themed this year as the ‘Find Yourself Festival’, took place on 16-18 December. The community was invited ‘to come together to celebrate in a safe, joyful, and playful space for the realization of human unity.’

On August 15th, 16th, and 17th, the illuminated fountain-pond at the Matrimandir Gardens was once again converted into a stage for a theatre presentation of ‘Usha and the Dawns to Come’.

On February 19th, a remarkable performance took place at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium of Bharat Nivas. Inspired by the poem ‘Is this the end?’

The small amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens was once again the site of a dramatic exploration of a spiritual search. A few years ago Aryamani staged excerpts from Sri Aurobindo’s Debate of Love and Death, from Book Ten of his epic Savitri.

The Akademik Genius Brothers brought us back to community theatre with a fun-packed evening to provide our annual dose of theatrical levity.

Auroville-raised Lili spent eight years studying art history, theatre and fine arts abroad, and is now perhaps the busiest youth in Auroville.

In this month’s installment of our regular column about Auroville’s neighbours, we meet Rashmi Gandaki, who has been living next to Auroville for the last six years.

In 2020, one subject attracted maybe as much attention as the pandemic itself: “masks”. This simple but nowadays also potent word is able to trigger emotions, opinions, reflection and action.

Auroville’s second Endangered Craft Mela took place in February, and it was a lively event. For one week, the Youth Centre was transformed into a hive of activity, with 50 craftspeople sharing their skills and 250 excited children being inducted into the pleasure of making objects with their hands

‘Message in a Bottle’ was an inspiring, well produced community play and a testament to the creative juices flowing in Auroville. Above all, it was great fun with a street smart kick at times.

As an arts institute that attracts artists and performers from around the world, one that is itself engaged in producing its own radical body of performative work, we are fortunate to have Adishakti in our neighbourhood.

Francis was one of the first settlers on the Auroville plateau. Since then, he has been involved in many activities in the community.

March 30th saw an unusual theatre production, an English adaptation of seven short Tamil stories by the late renowned writer, R Chudamani. The Madras Players, Chennai’s acclaimed English theatre group, presented the 90 minute-long production as a seamless narrative of intimate peeks into the lives of orthodox urban middle class Tamils.

Sangamam in Tamil means ‘confluence’ or ‘a group of people coming together’ and this was very much the spirit of this year’s gathering on the 4th of March that brought together around 8000 people from Auroville, its beautiful bioregion, and many friends and guests from around the world.

Bhu was a testimony to Auroville’s potential in bringing together diverse groups of people for synergetic collaborations. Conceived by Phillipe Pelen and Moucazambo Thierry of the visiting French theatre company “Les Porteurs d’eau,” Bhu drew its inspiration chiefly from conversations between the choreographers and Barbara of Ritam, Auroville and the work of Kalarigram, a Kalaripayattu institute in the vicinity of Auroville.

The month of February is culture month par excellence. Auroville Today selected three performances and one exhibition for a brief review - acknowledging that many other events deserved to be reviewed as well.

Nammal mudiyam - the “we can” project - is a project of the youth of Edayanchavady. As a step in transforming their village, they organized an alcohol-awareness programme on 28th February in the temple square.

Theatre artist Veenapani Chawla, one of Auroville’s most dynamic neighbours, passed away on November 30 after suffering a heart attack following a pulmonary embolism.

In mid December Aurovilians enjoyed a production of The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. Oscar, (played by Otto), a sloppy sportswriter, and the neurotically-fastidious Felix, (Krishna) strain their friendship to the limit when they become room-mates.

Dubbed a ‘Laboratory for Theatre Arts and Research’, Adhishakti , an experimental theatre company located near Auroville, pushes boundaries and provokes through its work, whilst being relevant to contemporary audiences in India.

Temperate July evenings are usually the perfect setting for outdoor functions in and around Auroville. But when the skies open and wash out a performance and its audience of 125 people, it says much about an organisation’s professionalism that it can bundle the audience, projector and sound system into the nearby building, and have the show up and running again in a mere five minutes.