Where Ravana meets Hamlet

Beat this: Soon you may meet Ravana or even Hamlet walking down your street. Not convinced? You'll be, when you see these well-known historical characters walk out of the classics and take to the streets as part of Ahmedabad-based theatre group, Budhan Theatre's three-day Ahmedabad Theatre Festival (ATF) commencing in the city from Friday.

Ravana, the antagonist in Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas and Shakespeare's Hamlet are part of the 25 performances in five different languages that will be performed at three venues and community spaces in the city. Theatre groups from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Haryana besides Gujarat will take part in the fest. The pain of a lonely senior citizen who witnessed the atrocities of Khap Panchayats, or the tragedy of Shakespeare's protagonist, Macbeth, or seeing a swine fly off to space promises to keep audiences glued to their seats during the festival. "We will show performances like these, which Ahmedabad would never see again, on all the three days of the fest," said Dakxin Bajarange, director, Budhan Theatre, while talking to DNA.

The theatre festival will provide opportunity to large number of creative plays to be showcased in the city. "Usually, such plays are performed in Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities and Ahmedabad always missed seeing such action. We are trying to give a platform to such plays in this city," said Kalpana Gagdekar, member, Budhan Theatre said.