Bangalore Little Theatre

BEYOND HATTAMALA is an English adaptation of a Bengali play Hattamalar Oparey by Badal Sircar. Two likable thieves, Kena and Becha jump into a river to escape being caught and wash up on the shores of a strange land – a land where there’s no money! Kena and Becha are excited at the opportunities this strange new land has to offer. What follows are humorous, sometimes thought-provoking exchanges as we follow their misadventures in this land beyond Hattamala…

Reasons to attend the show

– Written by Badal Sircar, one of the most translated & prominent Indian playwrights from Bengal.
– Imaginative, with plenty of laughs, dance & drama.
– Suitable & entertaining for a wide range of audience: 6 years to 60 and more.

Duration: 75mins
Language: English
Age limit: 6 years and above

Direction:
Murtuza Khetty & Deepak Mote

Theatre in Education

MY NEW WORLD - Theatre-in-Education workshop

My New world is a theatre based online workshop Bangalore Little Theatre Foundation (BLTF) formulated at the onset of the lockdown situation due to the spread of COVID-19 virus. We felt we’re going through an important time in the planet’s history, where everyone is being affected, though in a unique way. The workshop uses interactive and reflective processes along with theatre based exercises to bring out one’s own experience, look at others around us and also bring forth our vision of the New World ahead of us. It’s a journey of reflection, sharing, learning, discovering choices and perspectives. This workshop falls in the category of our work in Theatre-in-Education.
The Theatre - in - Education Team : Vijay Padaki, Murtuza Khetty, Minti Jain, Asha Mathew and Vijay Sharma

Publications by BLT

Vitasta & BLT presents three volumes of exquisite plays with Vijay Padaki a Founder-Trustee of BLT and the person behind the New Play Development program is the Series Editor

This collection of books forms the first three volumes of BLT’s long list of plays to be published as part of its dissemination and outreach initiative on the occasion of its 60th year of entertaining theatre lovers with quality performances.

Vol 1: 4 Classics on the Indian Stage

Comprises English translations of an adaptation of the Sanskrit Classic Mrichhakatika, the Tamil Classic Silappadikaram, an adaptation of Smashana Kurukshetra by Kuvempu in Kannada, and Chomana Dudi by Shivaram Karanth.

Vol 2: History of Ideas

…includes original scripts by BLT. The Prophet and the Poet is based on the historically significant exchanges between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Tiger! Tiger! is based on a play by Dina Mehta on the life of Tipu Sultan. Finding Ananda was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary year of Swami Vivekananda. Monsters in the Dark is based on the Pulitzer Prize book The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. And Einstein’s Dreams is an original adaptation for the stage of Alan Lighman’s novel.

Vol 3: CHILDREN’S THEATRE: Programme of New Plays

…includes four plays – The Ungrateful Man, a tale from the Panchatantra; The Magic Drum, a collection of stories from the book by the same title by Sudha Murty; Ali Oh Baba, a retelling of the tale from the 1001 Arabian Nights; and The Court Jester, the tales of Tenali Rama.

In its praise: Thiruvananthapuram MP and noted writer Shashi Tharoor says

The ambitious project of publishing BLT’s most successful plays in a multi-volume anthology marks a great point in their story – another marker of the tremendous success they have attained.

Theatre director and award-winning filmmaker Feroz Abbas Khan says

BLT has had a strong play development programme for a long time. It is most appropriate that the plays are being published now. This is a huge contribution to the institution of the theatre in India.

Vijay Padaki, Arun Balakrishnan, Chander K Baljee, Vimala Rangachar, Prof. Roddam Narasimha Smt. Usha Mukunda during the Book  launch.

A little bit about us

At 60, Bangalore Little Theatre or BLT is Bangalore’s oldest English language theatre group. Old-timers of BLT have often been asked the secret of the group’s long life when, in contrast, one sees hundreds of cases of groups starting with a bang and dropping by the wayside in a couple of years. The difference, it seems, is in the simple fact that BLT is a membership organisation and, therefore, a genuine group.

Get Involved

You may be interested in learning about theatre, auditioning for a play, participating in a training programme or workshop, teaching a course, working off stage on technical jobs, assisting in communication and management tasks …. There are all kinds of possibilities. You may even prefer to be a quiet friend in the background.