Is change always for the better?

So questions a new play Samara's Song and wonders if there is a voice that speaks for many but can be heard as one

Progress is the current buzz word echoing across the globe. Races and communities across the world are undergoing constant changes to develop. Barack Obama famously heralded that change would come soon. But is change always for the better?



Does change adhere to promises? These are questions that a new play in town will try to answer. Wrapped within the narrative of an epic, that explores the distinctions among democracy, governance and dictatorship, well known theatre personality Ashish Sen brings on stage the English play Samara's Song.

Written by playwright and author Poile Sengupta, the play chronicles how various political concepts have undergone radical changes due to a deepening chasm between the politics of development and despair.u00a0

Explaining that Samara's Song, a multi media production with its mystery, love, deception and treachery provides dramatic food for thought, Ashish Sen, the director says, "It is a fascinating political script that works on many levels and cuts across the sweep of human history. We see how history's current and past landscape is consistently bloodied with rebellion, revolution and the promise of change."

Samara is the Sanskrit word for war and disquiet and is also the name of a city in the Southeastern part of Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara rivers. But the plot of the play is set in the troubled land of Eos, where water is scarce and the air is rampant with rumours of violence, treachery and suppression.

There is a desperate court of justice that dabbles in the politics of lust, greed and blackmail in its struggle for survival. Stricken by hunger and poverty, people await the arrival of a messiah to rescue them from their living hell. Suddenly three historians from an indeterminate time and space arrive to chronicle the events of Eos. But whose stories will they record? Whose voice will find expression in their histories? Whose vision will the process of recording reveal?

Most of the principal characters of Samara's Song have their names from cities and towns of the world. According to Sen, the play showing the gap between 'voice' and 'voiceless' is the hallmark of a good script as there are issues that take the centre stage but there is always freedom and space for interpretation and design.

From ancient political theories to the Marxist theory of change for class struggle, the play examines the translations of various theories from ideas to action. Samara's Song seems to be an attempt to find a change or a theory that will benefit the world as a whole.

Calling himselfu00a0 a student of history and confessing that he is drawn to the characters of historians in the play, Sen says, "Matters are accentuated today by a blurring of lines between democracy and dictatorship. The events of both today and the past tell us that change does not necessary mean change for the better. Very often we jump from the frying pan into the fire."

At: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
On: December 14 to 19, 7.30 pm
On: December 19, 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Call: 98863 70614
For: Rs 150