Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Mathemagician Invites U...!

Mathemagician

At Spaces, 1, Elliots Beach Road, Besant Nagar

on 21 & 22 August 2010

Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Admission Free Call: 98404 74186

Cast & Crew:

Vocal: Bombay Jayashri

Actor: V. Balakrishnan


The Story

The monodrama interweaves dialogue, music and poetry, to take you to Babylon 500BC, the commercial centre of the ancient world. Castrated and sold into slavery by his father, Nikor is apprenticed to Plautus, the Chief Economist of Babylon.With his brilliance in mathematics and statecraft, he attains incredible fame and wealth as the state’s Chief Mathematician, Accountant General and Keeper of the Seals. When he finds his childhood friend Salla again, now the wife of a debauched prince, Nikor is haunted by questions about himself, and what Salla means to him.


The Music

 The monodrama has a subtext of live music – sung by Bombay Jayashree, and played by Sheejith Krishna. The raags and the lyrics – thumri, ghazal and geet, belong to the Radha-Krishna and Sufi genres of romance, in the tawaif (courtesan) and bhakti traditions.


Mathemagician is being staged at Spaces, Chennai, by JustUs Repertory, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, by the Holy Cow Performing Arts Group, Scotland, on the same days: 21, 22 August 2010

Playwright/Director’s Note


As I was writing Mathemagician, I thought I was looking at issues universal and contemporary:
ravages of empire, effects of war on civilian life, ills of slavery, human trafficking, child abuse, gender issues, misuse of science and knowledge. All MCC-ians are Welcome..!

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