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Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/01/2018
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location
Alliance Française du Bengale

Categories


Theatre Adda: Park Street Sessions presents ‘ Designs of Desire’ – a session of lecture & performance as a tribute to Gustave Flaubert and Jean Genet.

This session is presented by Drishya, Culture Monks & Alliance Française du Bengale.

Originally planned to be staged in December 2017 to commemorate the birth month of both the authors, we are extremely delighted to be presenting this at the beginning of 2018.

The program is supported by Iris Home Fragrances.

Program Summary

Venue: Alliance Française du Bengale, Park Mansions, Park Street.

Date: January 4, 2018

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Entry is free

Content Details

‘DESIGNS OF DESIRE’

JEAN GENET remains the most subversive yet charismatic outlaw of modern French literature. Born 19th Dec 1910, his work echoes de Sade as much as Rimbaud and Verlaine.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (born 12th Dec, 1821) is considered to be a pioneer of the modern novel. His controversial masterpiece ‘Madame Bovary’ (1857), completing 160 years, is still pertinent. It critiqued the institutional idea of marriage and hence, modernity itself.

The evening will feature a lecture by Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay on Flaubert & Genet.

Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay is a Professor, Dept. of Film Studies, Jadavpur University, and Kolkata. Formerly Director and CEO, Roopkala Kendro, Kolkata. Author, translator and cultural analyst.

This will be followed by a performance by Culture Monks which includes video installation, theatre, poetry, spoken words & live music.

Performance synopsis by Janardan Ghosh

Sartre said, “There is only one genius in France today: Jean Genet.”

Genet is a legend, a sort of a myth, a cultural phenomenon. He was an abandoned child raised by foster parents. He lived a life of a criminal, a thief, a male whore. Jean Cocteau and Sartre pleaded for a softer judgement for his innumerable crimes. The question is how can a happy, gentle child with heaps of dreams and intense spiritual aspiration steal? The answer is only because he was hungry. He was hungry not only for food but also for legitimacy and a decent privilege. A strange void and sense of un-belonging made him restless and a fugitive: a rebellious response to the “helpless existential situation.” His disquiet, unease and hunger manifested into novels and plays and essays. We present you:

The Forbidden Genes of Genet

A performance art based on Genet’s provocation, his journey from a tramp to a prolific writer. Herein, we attempt to sniff through his world of sexuality and spirituality. We also try to explore his political activism and celebrate his literary magic. It is a thirty minutes performance juxtaposed with live music, video installation and mimetic movement.

Soundscape: Pradip Chatterjee (Bula-da) & Inam Hussain Mullick

Video Installation: Baishanpayan Saha & Sudipta Dawn

Movement Design: Deb Kumar Paul

Text and Performance Art: Janardan Ghosh

Performers: Sanchaita, Tanisha, Piyali, Sankha, Titas and Narendranath

Assistants: Sohel, Arpita, Sohini, Subhodeep

Lights: Vidyapati Chakraborty

This program has been conceptualized by Sudeb Sinha. Jointly curated by Culture Monks & Sudeb Sinha.