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The internationally acclaimed The Golden Dragon will be performed at Jagriti from today.Following the successful staging of Lysistrata, Jagriti Theatre is now set to stage The Golden Dragon, as part of its ongoing theatre festival. A tragicomic tale of globalisation, set in your local Thai\ Chinese\ Vietnamese takeaway, The Golden Dragon— which will be performed by the Olivier Award winning Actors’ Touring Company (TCA) Touring Company, UK, at Jagriti Theatre — received critical acclaim at The Edinburgh Festival. Written by the well-known German playwright Roland Schimmelphennig and translated by David Tushingham, “The Golden Dragon” is a theatrical fable that is placed within larger socio-economic issues of modern society and migration.

The New Year brings a festive offering from Jagriti. While the first play of the season was Lysistrata, a farcical Greek play done in Bangalore by local actors the second is an Internationally acclaimed play that is funny in parts but talks about a larger socio-economic malaise to which India is no stranger-Immigration and more specifically illegal immigration.

As Thespo 13 drew to a close on Sunday, it was a time to celebrate the best talent in theatre. The Thespo 13 Awards Nite — that marked an end to the six-day festival — was held at the NCPA Experimental Theatre. The evening started with Alyque Padamsee presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Arundhati and Jagdish Raja from Bangalore. The award acknowledged the Rajas’ undying passion for theatre and the fact that they had opened up the world of theatre to generations of young Bangaloreans — be it through their banner Artistes Repertory Theatre or the recent 200-seater Jagriti Theatre.

We have — after 30 years of producing, directing, casting, acting and staging nearly 70 plays in almost all the venues around Bangalore and in others in Indian cities and even as far as London, England — suddenly been transformed from theatre practitioners to administrators and managers; looking at P&L statements, business plans and marketing!.

It’s not that Bangalore has always been kind to theatre. But somehow the theatre lovers have always found a way to keep it alive — from a tangible perspective as well as getting people, sometimes even converting the philistines, to keep their faith in the arts alive.

These plays are in no hurry to let the curtains fall. Each lasts 18 days for a period of six months so you can feast on some wit and drama at Jagriti.

This is the story of two Arundhatis, their husbands and their extraordinary passion for theatre. It is about theatres — Jagriti and Rangashankara — that the two Arundhatis built at the opposite ends of Bangalore, which today make for a vibrant, happening dramatic theatre scene in the city.

Remember the time you missed your favourite play because you had to travel out of town or had an exam or a cold. There could be a million reasons why it’s easy to miss a play in Bangalore, primarily because every show — new or old — only runs for a couple of days. If you’re really lucky, it could run for a week. Unlike, say London where a show has to perform for at least a couple of months to even merit a review. The Lion King, for instance, has been performing non-stop for the last 12 years at Lyceum theatre. You couldn’t have missed it even if you tried !

THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN by Kirsten Childs