SAWITRI Theatre Group – Canadian premieres – 7 languages: Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati Marathi, Urdu, English, Hinglish – Indian folk theatre – Bollywood nostalgia – total 21 performances – local artists – serving newcomers to Canada
Mississauga, February 28, 2025 – SAWITRI Theatre Group is proud to present the SSTF 2025 with performances every weekend starting from 5th April. This year, the focus is to bring Indian folk-theatre style to stage, bhavai in Gujarati and vag* in Marathi. New for this year is also a Bollywood nostalgia series. The festival takes place at the Maja Prentice theatre, Mississauga.
Says Shruti Shah, Festival Director of the SSTF, “I am delighted to present the SSTF 2025! It remains a platform for local talent, a stage to experiment, innovate and take risks. To inspire and be inspired and continue collaborating with local theatre artists and build our theatre community. I am especially delighted to bring a new nostalgia series titled ‘Aap Ka Khayal Aaya…’(Thinking of you…) conceptualized by writer-producer-director, Sundeep Pahwa. This series pays tribute to two legendary artists who ruled the silver screens in India during the 50s, 60s and 70s – poet and lyricist, Sahir Ludhianvi, and actor-director-writer-producer, Dev Anand. It celebrates their contribution to the world of Hindi Cinema (known as Bollywood since the 80s).”
SAWITRI Theatre Group – Founded in 2003 by Artistic Co-Directors Jasmine Sawant and Shruti Shah, SAWITRI Theatre Group is an award-winning, incorporated not-for-profit organization presenting original works featuring established professionals as well as emerging artists. SAWITRI’s mandate is to educate, inform, entertain, and heal through South Asian theatre arts that foreground women and the new generation, and to highlight issues of socio-political importance with works in some of India’s many languages including English. Winner of the 2016 Martys Award for excellence in theatre, SAWITRI Theatre is also the producer and presenter of the Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival (MMFF), the only multilingual fringe festival in North America. Operationally, SAWITRI Theatre Group is partly funded by the City of Mississauga and the Ontario Arts Council, as well as by The Open Space, Nitin Sawant, and the unstinting support of family, friends and volunteers. The SSTF is partly funded by Canadian Heritage.
Venue: Maja Prentice Theatre, 3650 Dixie Rd, Mississauga, ON L4Y 3V9
Performance Dates in April: 5th – Hindi, 6th – Punjabi, 12th – Gujarati, 13th – Aap Ka Khayal Aya, 19th – Marathi, 20th – Urdu, 26th – English and 27th – Seniors’ Shorts.
Timings: Matinee – 2 pm, Evening – 7 pm
Tickets: https://linktr.ee/sawitritheatregroup
Contact:www.sawitri.ca
Additional Information
Bhavai
Bhavai is a popular folk theatre form that is said to have originated in Gujarat, India about 700 years ago. It derives its meaning from a combination of words the dominant part of which is bhav meaning emotions. Originally, only the male members of the Bhavaiyya community performed it in open spaces outside a temple, where people generally gathered.
Bhavai’s original aim was to create awareness of those who were marginalized and this was done through over-the-top acting, absurdity and vernacular humour. It was presented as entertainment that was enjoyed and understood by all and yet carried the responsibility of social critique with the hope of influencing change.
Due to modern means of entertainment even in rural areas, Bhavai has seen a decline in popularity and there is now a revival movement by artists, the Gujarat government, and other private organizations.
History
Historically, the Bhavaiyya community made its living by relying on the alms provided by village patrons in exchange for performing Bhavai. Bhavai was not seen merely as a means of entertainment, but also as a platform for the community to gather and socialise, and a medium to invoke and inspire spiritual consciousness. The annual arrival of the Bhavai troupe in the village was much anticipated and the members were accorded generous hospitality. The peripatetic community relied entirely on the rations, clothing, and other alms given to them by the host village (Claus, Diamond, & Mills 2003).
Despite its ritual significance and a number of mythological plays in its repertory Bhavai as a folk dramatic form is specially known for its social plays full of humour. Subtle criticism laced with pungent humour is the specialty of Bhavai. The pompous and incongruous behavior of high caste people is scoffed at in Bhavai plays. (Varadpande 1987)
While Bhavai makes use of eight out of nine rasas, humour (hasya) remains the dominant rasa. The language is a liberal mix of colloquial Gujarati and Hindi-Urdu as well as other local dialects. It begins with sanctifying the performance area, followed by singing and playing religious songs. The opening act invokes the blessings of Lord Ganesha, the remover of all obstacles. This is followed by the characters of Rangalo and Rangli, (male and female narrators) who are crowd-pullers. This pair uses sarcasm, double entendres which may border on vulgar, and popular references to make jokes at the expense of society and the matrimonial state. Dances are based on various popular forms of raas (folk dance) with hints of Kathak (classical dance form).
Bhavai receives acclaim from professional artists for being a versatile and flexible form of theatre. It allows the performers considerable scope for improvisation. In the last few decades, scholarly attempts have been made to analyse and codify techniques in Bhavai, but it still remains a popular form. It had lost favour during the British rule in India, due to judicial criticisms of vulgarity and obscenity, and there was a long period of stagnation. It underwent a revival in soon after 1947 the film by Ketan Mehta, Bhavni Bhavai (1980) brought this folk form to mainstream attention.
Bhavai is considered lowbrow entertainment due to its stereotypical image of exaggerated acting and brazen humour. Despite attempts by theatre groups to popularise Bhavai in urban centres by staging street plays, as the entertainment of choice it is still restricted to rural areas.
Vag
“Vag” (farce) is a form of Marathi folk theatre. ‘Gan’, ‘guvlan’ and ‘vag’ are the principal components of a tamasha (Marathi folk theatre). The Vag is one of the first forms of theater and is said to have originated in Maharashtra, India, about 900 years ago. Kirtan is believed the first form of Marathi theatre that predates the tamasha. A kirtan is where a religious story is shared with common people with classical music on Ek Tari, hand cymbals and harmonium (keyboard)
The vag starts with Gan which is a Ganapati Prayer and then generally a farcical play based on a current topic with two or three Lavani nritya (Lavani dance) are performed.
The live music with dholki (a percussion instrument), Lavani Nritya and hilarious dialogues are three essential parts of any vag.
The play is made only for the entertainment of common people. “Mi Ladachi Maina Tumchi” (I am your darling Maina) vag revolves around a young couple, Sokaji (the husband) and Maina (the wife), who enjoy a lavish lifestyle and are not mature enough to take on the responsibilities of a family. They plan to extract money from the King and Queen of the land, who trust them, by faking their own deaths. However, the King and Queen eventually catch the couple and their lies out. How they catch Sokaji and Maina is presented in this vag, which is in the SSTF 2025.
