Indian street theatre group to perform plays on gender justice, globalization trends

Indian street theatre group to perform plays on gender justice, globalization trendsMarch 20, 2007Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Jana Natya Manch (JANAM), India’s foremost street theatre group, will perform two plays — on women’s struggles for justice and on current globalization trends — on Wednesday, March 28, at 4 p.m. in the Eggers Commons.

The group will perform “Voh Bol Uthi” (“And She Spoke Up”), two tales about women, and “Nahi Qabool!” (“Unacceptable!”). The performances are co-sponsored by SU’s South Asia Center, The Fisher Center, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the iLEARN Program and Department of Religion in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences. The performances are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the University’s visitor pay lots.

“Vol Bol Uthi” (“And She Spoke Up”) is a play comprising two stories. In the first story, a poor child wants to tie red ribbons in her hair but is prevented from doing so. In the second story, a woman worker finds that she has inadvertently broken the unanimity of struggling workers by demanding a separate toilet for women.

“Nahi Qabool” (Unacceptable!”) satirizes the currently fashionable ideas of liberalization and globalization, in which the poor seem to have to pay the largest price. The president of the most powerful country in the world is on an Indian tour led by the minister of globalization and the minister of privatization. The two ministers fall all over each other to please the president by showing off how much they have worked in the interests of imperialism and against the interests of their own people.

“This is a truly unique opportunity to see India’s political street theatre in action, and one not likely to repeat in the foreseeable future,” says Ann Grodzins Gold, William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities and director of SU’s South Asia Center.

The JANAM Theatre Group is composed of Vijay Kalia, Brijender Singh, Ashok Kumar, Mukeshwar Paswan, Sarita Sharma, Manoj Karki, Sudhanva Deshpande and Moloyashree Hashmi.