THEATRE + COMEDY

In celebration of Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birthday and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, Shunya Theatre (supported by the Tagore Society of Houston, IIT Bombay Alumni, and other organizations) will present the play The Prophet and the Poet.

The play is based on the exchange of letters and articles between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore over a period of 25 years, with the Indian freedom struggle as the backdrop. The play is written by Vijay Padaki and has been developed at the Academy of Theatre Arts, a programme division of Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation. It is produced by arrangement with Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation.

The play premiered by invitation at Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram on January 30, 2009, subsequently at Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan, then at the courtyard stage of Tagore’s home in Jora Sanko, now a heritage site. The play script is developed from a draft manuscript compiled by Shailesh Parekh and shared with Bangalore Little Theatre, now published as Gandhi Vs. Tagore by Viswa Bharati, Kolkata, 2010. The compilation was based on the archival research by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, former Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati University.

The dates of the production have been set: September 30 – October 9, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm at Barnevelder Movement Arts, 2201 Preston Street, Houston, TX 77003-2222.