Mohammad Ali Baig; Ashish Vidyarthi
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The 19th edition of the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival, to be held in Hyderabad from November 6 to 10, will pay homage to the theatre doyen’s wife Begum Razia Baig, who passed in March this year. “She chaired the festival she co-founded for 18 years. This year’s festival is women-centric in its theme and we pay an ode to motherhood,” says actor-theatre personality Mohammad Ali Baig, son of Begum Razia and the curator of the festival.

The five-day fest at Taramati Baradari Cultural Complex will present performances, workshops and masterclasses by actors, poets, writers and directors. The festival will open with actor Ashish Vidyarthi’s Hindi/English stand-up comedy act Vitthal Kaanya, named after the popular character he portrayed in the Hindi film Vaastav. Baig explains, “Our mandate is to present a ‘clean’ stand-up comedy show that does not resort to foul language or offend any group in the audience.” 

At the upcoming festival, audiences can look forward to satire, mature romance and dance theatre. While Ila Arun and KK Raina feature in Miracle on Matunga Street, an adaptation of playwright Tom Dudzick’s comedy-drama Miracle on South Division Street, the UK group Wright and Grainger will perform Helios, an English play that focuses on a modern-day myth, inspired by an ancient Greek tale. The play will be in association with the British Council.

“Nadira Babbar’s play Farida, which she has written and directed, is a romance set in Kashmir,” informs Baig, about the presentation by Mumbai-based Ejkute Theatre Group.

Bengaluru-based Praveen Kumar of Chithkala School of Dance will present a dance theatre performance titled Thyagaraja Hruth Sadhana. ACT 24 theatre group’s Hindi play Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai is inspired by Arbuzov’s Russian play Do You Turn Somersaults? 

The festival will come to a close with Mystical Fragrance – An Ode to Motherhood, an English/Urdu poetry session featuring classical singer and musician Zila Khan as well as Mohammad Ali Baig and Dolly Thakore performing and reciting poems of well-known Indian and international poets such as Ali Sardar Jafri, Edgar Allan Poe and Rudyard Kipling.