Molière’s classic comedy meets new-age tech with Sanchaya’s new play 

Sanchaya, a 35-year-old amateur theatre troupe and one among the oldest Kannada theatre troupes in Bengaluru, is back with its latest production, a new age representation of Molière’s Tartuffe titled Natyadevacharite.

Sanchaya, a 35-year-old amateur theatre troupe and one among the oldest Kannada theatre troupes in Bengaluru, is back with its latest production, a new age representation of Molière’s Tartuffe titled Natyadevacharite.

Opened at the Ranga Shankara Kannada Natakotsava 2024, in Sheshagiri, the play will have its public premiere on March 9, at 3.30 p.m in Ranga Shankara, J.P. Nagar.  

Directed by Prithvi Venugopal, an actor and lighting designer, Natyadevacharite marks his debut as a director of a full-fledged play. The play, a classic theatrical comedy revolves around a rich man who becomes vulnerable to an imposter preacher or Guru pretending to be pious and religious. The plot unfolds through a mix of comedy and drama, revealing the Guru’s insincerity. The Guru takes advantage of the wealthy man’s unquestioning admiration.  

As the family plots a smart plan, the audience is invited to watch the unfolding events, wondering if the imposter will be caught. The main theme humorously explores dishonesty in religious practices, the risks of trusting the wrong people, and the outcomes of blindly following someone, all presented in a satirical manner. The play aims to entertain while shedding light on the dangers of blindly trusting those who manipulate religious appearances for personal gain. Through its mix of comedy and drama, the play unfolds a tale that prompts the audience to reflect on the consequences of misplaced trust and the humorous aspects of religious hypocrisy, says the director of the play.  

Speaking to The Hindu, Prithvi says that as a first-time director of a play along with many first-time actors, it was a challenge and a learning process, “When Ranga Shankara offered me this opportunity, I wanted to present it through Sanchaya, who I have been working with for many years, and the team immediately agreed to make this a Sanchaya production. I have directed short plays before, but this is my first full-fledged play, and this process has taught me a lot. I have been a lighting designer for a long time, and designing the lights for this play was never a challenge. However, aspects such as adapting the script, editing, creating and conceptualising a storyline, conveying my ideas to the costume designer, all of this is something I have not done before, and is a new learning experience.”

“Another challenge was that out of 17 people on stage, not more than three actors were experienced. Most of the actors were getting on stage for the first time or were part of one or two plays as replacement actors. None of them had the experience of doing a full-fledged production. It was a challenge for me to train them in simple matters like stage-presence, movement, taking the right spot for light and more. However, over the period, I realised each actors’ strengths and made use of their best traits,” he says.  

Despite being a script that is four centuries old, Natyadevacharite has been made relevant to this age using new technical aspects like projection, a GoPro camera, and virtual reality (VR) headsets. “New age technology has been used in this play despite this being a 400-year-old play. The play has scenes of exposing the insincerity of a preacher. With GoPro cameras playing as spy cameras, and those visuals projected on a screen, the audience will get to explore the other side of this imposter-preacher. We have also used VR headsets, where the actors will play a scene wearing it, and the same visual will be projected for the audience to experience,“ Prithvi adds.