Jyotsna Pramanik performs in Colours of Balloons at Bhanja Kala Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 31: The third edition of Ekaa, a theatre festival of solo performances, came to an end yesterday.

The two-day festival was held at Bhanja Kala Mandap.

The inaugural play of the festival, Colour of Balloons, was penned and directed by Manas Sahoo. A married woman, Pinky, essayed by amateur actress Jyotsna Pramanik, seeks some company. Her husband is a busy money-minded man with little care for his wife’s emotional needs. The despondency of the woman leads her to befriend an unknown caller.

Love blossoms over incessant calls, but it degenerates into obsession with the woman going berserk when her lover does not take her calls or when his phone is engaged. The lover turns out to be a con man, who had duped her into love for monetary favours and deserts her after his motive is met.

The reality shatters Pinky, who then calls her husband rebuking him for his indifference. She also chides her mother for selling her to a rich but heartless man before slitting her veins. Though slightly lengthy, the script and performance were brilliant.

The second play was The Mask, a story scripted, directed and enacted by Calcutta-based actor Kamal Naskar.

The story is about how every individual wears a metaphorical mask that creates his image and others judge him on its basis. The mask is completely different from what the person is actually inside.

Narrating the tale is a mask-seller, who sells all kinds of expressions in the form of masks for his customers who come to him to buy them to veil their real personalities. The mime production got rave reviews from the audience.

On Sunday evening, the play Calling Bell, adapted from a story by Shantanu Kumar Acharya, depicted a complex love story involving three people. It was enacted by Tushmita Patel and directed by Siba Shankar Tripathy.

Katha, a story by Basant Satpathy, was directed and presented by Prashant Satpathy. It compared a compassionate woodcutter with hard-bitten hands to a conniving officer with soft hands.

The curtains descended on the festival with Bagha Manisha, directed and portrayed by Narayana Maharana and told the story of a deceased artiste adept in a folk dance form.

“Such initiatives will help in ushering variety in Odia theatre,” said Ashutosh Panda, a theatre enthusiast.