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Arundhati
joined Theatron in the year 1998, from then she is the
active member of this group. She acted in "Tapasyi and
Tarangini" and "Tomari Matir Kanya". Now she is preparing
for there upcoming production. We’ve always chosen plays
that are beyond our means. If we want to define the character
of our group, that single sentence should do it. We have
remained around for over 30 years now, in Kolkata, the
cultural capital of India, and we have survived despite
our dogmatic stand. We are part of Theatron. We are part
of a group that has never gone for numbers, that has always
measured success by the aesthetic standards it has been
able to set, and the extent to which it has been able
to enthral and captivate and touch the people. The group
was formed in April, 1974.
 The
war of Troy is over. The Greeks have won, not by valour,
but by a foul trick. For ten long years they besieged
the city of Troy, but could not go beyond its impregnable
walls, for these were built by two powerful immortals,
the Sun God Apollo and the God of the High Seas, Poseidon.
So they duped the Trojans into accepting a huge wooden
horse as a token oftheir submission, which the Trojans
themselves hauled inside the city walls in their elation
as a symbol of victory. The nightlong celebrations
left the Trojans tired and unsteady, and then the
Greeks struck, for there were soldiers hidden inside
the horse. Troy was swept clean of all its men in
one night.
And now only the women are left, including those of
the royal household. Queen Hecabe, wife of King Priam,
mother to the gallant warrior Hector, the handsome
Paris, the innocent Polyxena and the seer priestess
Cassandra, is distraught in her grief. The Greeks,
led by King Agamemnon , had struck Troy when Paris
eloped with the gorgeous Helen, wife of the Greek
king, Menelaus . Now their vengeance is complete,
with the women of Troy beingmeted out to the Greeks
as concubines, servants and paramours, and even the
last male, the infant son of Hector and his wife Andromach,
being killed.The God Poseidon and the Goddess Athene
have plotted to wipe out the Greeks in a tornado after
they sail for home . The Greeks are under the sentence
of death, but before retribution descends on them,
they make it clear, by their various outrages, how
much they deserve it. They are doomed from the start,
and proceed to pile up the count before our eyes.
On the other hand, we are at a loss to understand
how the Trojan women, whohave led their lives as per
the moral tenets of society, have deserved their terrible
fate. Do we then see that nothing the individual can
do can have meaning in a world on the brink of annihilation
for reasons and by means that the individual is unable
to grasp and over which he appears to have no control?
In
Tomari Matir Kanya, based on The Trojan Women
of Euripides, staged in 2002, we decided to emphatically
state that this is NOT a play about the plight of
women in times of war. This is about the plight of
human beings in times of war. This is NOT a play
about thedefeat of a country. This is about the death
of a civilization . This is about the loss of freedom
and dignity, and ultimately about the loss of faith
in all that is good and sacred. Visit us at www.theatron.blogspot.com.
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