It has been practically 20 years since Roysten Abel’s iconic musical manufacturing, The Manganiyar Seduction, premiered. But the famous playwright and theatre director, recognized for a spread of critically and commercially acclaimed works, similar to Flowers, Othello in Black and White, A Hundred Charmers, and The Kitchen, nonetheless isn’t uninterested in the music.
“I should have had enough of it, but I just don’t. There is something very special about it. It still manages to mesmerise me,” insists Roysten, who’s all set to deliver The Manganiyar Seduction to Bengaluru.
This breathtaking work, which has musicians from Rajasthan’s Manganiyar group acting on an elaborate set composed of stacked, red-curtained cubicles impressed by each Jaipur’s Hawa Mahal and the red-light districts of Amsterdam, “came to me at a point when I wasn’t even interested in it,” he remembers.
He was in Segovia, Spain, directing one other present, when he was “seduced” into this musical world by the 2 Manganiyar musicians who had accompanied him on this journey. “They would come and sing outside the room at 6 in the morning… and I could not get enough of it,” says Roysten, who went on to create a present round this music again in 2006.
Over the years, the piece has taken a lifetime of its personal, he feels. “I don’t believe that there is any work of art that is complete. It has got its life, is a living, breathing thing,” he says of The Manganiyar Seduction, which has been carried out tons of of instances in iconic venues all over the world, transcending linguistic and cultural borders.
“Even when I was creating it, I did not know what each line meant,” says Roysten, who believes that the music of those singers was all the time larger than the language. “That is what I wanted to share with the rest of the world,” he says, mentioning that focus was by no means on what was being sung, however the way in which it was. “It cracks people, stuns them, moves them…that is why it works so well.”
The Manganiyar Seduction is being introduced to Bengaluru thanks to a collaboration between the Bhoomija Trust and the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts.
“After more than 800 shows across the world, having Roysten’s masterpiece staged in Bangalore is truly a special treat,” says Dipti Rao, DGM of Auditorium Operations, Prestige Centre for Performing Arts.
Gayathri Krishna, Founder and Managing Trustee, Bhoomija, refers to The Manganiyar Seduction as “a production that has become a cultural phenomenon across the world. Roysten Abel has created a work that is both deeply rooted in tradition and breathtakingly modern in its theatricality. It is immersive, powerful, and unlike anything else.”
The Manganiyar Seduction is being staged on the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, Bangalore, on Friday, 29 Aug at 8 pm and on Saturday, 30 Aug at 4:30 and seven:30 pm. Tickets, priced ₹ 1200 onwards, can be found at BookMyShow.
