KATKATHA
PUPPET ARTS
TRUST'S
ABOUT RAM

“About Ram” is an experimental theatrical piece using excerpts from the Bhavbhuti Ramayana and told through animation, projected images, dance, masks and puppets.

Ram, the prince of Ayodhya is exiled by his father, at the instigation of his step mother. He crosses the river to the forest with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. Sita is kidnapped by Ravan the king of Lanka and kept prisoner. As Ram sits by the ocean looking at Lanka across its vastness his life flashes by, he feels powerless and dejected as he longs to fly across the ocean to his beloved Sita. The puppeteers help him by projecting his desires into the mask of the super hero Hanuman which attaches itself to Rams face, at once turning him into a super powerful simian who leaps across the ocean and reaches Sita.

In this journey and the bloody war that follows with Ravan, Ram becomes a king, forced to choose between the duty of the throne and the love of his wife.He rules alone for the next 10,000 years.

This adaptation looks at Ram as a human being and not as “God.” It traces Ram’s inner journey as a man tormented by his forced separation from his wife Sita. He then fights a fierce battle with the demons to rescue Sita only to be tormented by his own inner demons. Is Sita still pure? Will the people of Ayodhya ever accept her?

Why the Ramayana?

The reason is two fold. Firstly, to re-look at this ancient epic and find a new way of telling it for young people used to sophisticated technology, television and computer games. Secondly, to explore the possibilities of expanding the boundaries of puppetry from the figure of the puppet, to its manipulators and to its environment.

Katkatha, as a puppet theatre company believe that puppetry is an amalgam of may forms, both plastic and performative and yet it has a distinct identity. Experimenting with different forms will push the boundaries of puppet theatre and expand its identity, a little at a time.

“About Ram” was created with a performance grant from the India Foundation for the Arts and in collaboration with animator Vishal Dar.

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The Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust is a New Delhi, India-based puppet theatre company which began in 1998. Since then creating a rigorous training system for puppeteers has been a key focus for the group. In absence of a puppet school or courses to train professional puppeteers in India, Katkatha conducts intensive short courses and workshops in puppet techniques, supports interns who learn by following the work of the company. The focus is to train the next generation of professional puppeteers, create a discourse around puppetry and also build a network of puppeteers.

Run Time: Approximately 55 minutes, with no intermission.