Mysuru: Parivarthana Ranga Samaja is presenting Athol Fugard’s play The Island as Dweepa in Kannada by S.R. Ramesh. Ayana troupe from Mangaluru will enact this play Directed by K.P. Lakshman on Oct. 15 at 7 pm at Kirurangamandira in Kalamandira premises.

The play unfolds visible suffering in today’s world that is almost invisible or has become insignificant.

Dweepa (The Island)  is a two character play comprising  four scenes. In the first scene, Vijay and George are engaged in Sisyphean task of carrying sand in wheelbarrows to and from heaps in an interminable and meaningless labour on island. When they return George convinces Vijay to rehearse the play Antigone. Vijay doesn’t want to do the play as he is not interested in appearing as a woman on stage.  

Meanwhile, they both share their intimate private and family moments, they imitate phone conversation, news reading etc.

George is called away and hears that his sentence has been reduced to three months which will leave Vijay alone in the prison. 

In the third scene George imagines his freedom as Vijay’s envy intensifies. Scene four sees the staging of Antigone. George plays Creon and Vijay plays the role of Antigone who questions the law of the land, the order passed by King Creon, she says is insignificant before the laws of Divinity. The greatest political play is played by the  political prisoners in the prison.   

Though the play is a registration of racial  prejudices, the play has contemporary relevance. In a country which is curtailing human rights and crushing freedom of  expression, the staging of this play is perhaps the right act. Interestingly, when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in Robben Island, he had played the role of Creon.