META: A Cue for Entry

‘Viva la vie Boheme’, wrote American playwright John Larson in his groundbreaking theatrical musical, Rent. And that is exactly what I am advising all of you to do between March 4^th – 9^th, when META comes to town. For one week, live the Bohemian life, rich with the keen unstructured pleasure of having your days dissolve, set by set, into the heart of the limitless stage.

Bringing its annual landmark celebration of all things theatre and stage-craft to Delhi, the twelfth edition of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META), produced by Teamwork Arts, will reward all aspects of theatre production. It remains, even after a decade,amongst Indian theatre’s most anticipated, lauded, and prestigious awards.The weeklong festival retrospective will be held at Shri Ram Centre and Kamani auditoriums. A glittering ‘Red Carpet Trophy Awards Night’ will be held on the 10th March, 2017, when the winners will be awarded the prestigious META.

Like theatre itself, META is fastidious; it follows an intricate process. What I find refreshing is the equalising and inclusive canvas this festival endorses: theatre groups from all over the country send in entries. Everyone can participate as long as your play makes the eligibility mark, is taped on an electronic device which can be shipped off or downloaded – there are no “big daddies” who have to first recommend your work before you get a preliminary viewing. Every entry is conscientiously watched and that, in itself, is no mean a feat.

The final ten nominated plays are performed for a discerning audience and an even more exacting jury before the awards are decided.

This year the plays cover a wide range of themes – mythology runs through a lot of them; gender issues, identity crises, the complex triptych of love, lust and hate, stark social inequities, brash corporate satire, play-within-a-play motifs all have space under the chequered META umbrella. The plays have their synopses neatly capsuled on the metawards.com website where the nominations had earlier been announced. Please go onto the site: read, choose your favourites, book tickets and wait – Lassanwalla will make you laugh while filling you with tender poignancy, Awdyyo Shesh Rajani will resonate with violence in your insides, Elephant in the Room will bemuse you with its phantasmagoric possibilities. The list is endless as is the gamut of emotions you will soak in.

For the first time, a Rajasthani play Katha Sukavi Suryamall Ki is on the finalists’ list. Bengali and Malayalam plays are also on the jury’s radar along with some power-packed English and Hindi theatre.

So, folks, carpe diem… and clear your heads of the regular and the mundane as you wait to begin your thespian calendar well before the Ides of March strike.

– Arundhati Nath