False illusions of life Insecurity and an almost complete lack of inter-personal communication are perhaps the two major scourges of the modern civilised world. Edward Albee’s celebrated work Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf highlights this problem through a play that offers an unflattering glimpse into the lives of a conservative, middle-class couple. It shows how human beings suffer false illusions about themselves and others and, at the same time, are frightened of these fallacies. In the play, George and Martha invite a new professor and his wife to their house after a party. Martha is the daughter of the president of the university where George is an associate history professor. Nick (who is never addressed or introduced by name) is a biology professor (who, Martha thinks, teaches mathematics), and Honey is his ignorant, abusive wife. Once at home, Martha and George continue drinking and engage in relentless, verbal scathing and sometimes physical abuse in front of Nick and Honey. The younger couple are simultaneously fascinated and embarrassed. They stay on even though the abuse turns periodically towards them as well. Direction: Devina Seth. Event: Play in English, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, presented by Theatrecian and Spandan When: Today at 7 pm Where: G.D. Birla Sabhagar

Art

August 14 - 22 at Gallery 79, 79 Raja Basanta Roy Road, 1st floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: Flowers — an exhibition of Shyamal Sen’s latest collection of watercolours. Inauguration today at 5 pm. Till August 14 at G.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, Laha Paint House, 1st floor, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue; 2 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Alakananda Mukerji, professor, Studio Art Dept, Manhattanville College, NY, USA. Till August 14 at Academy of Fine Arts, West Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings by Arpita Basu. Till August 14 at Academy of Fine Arts, New South-A Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Paintings by Sanjib Roy. Till August 14 at Aakriti Art Gallery, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #2289 3027/ 5041; 12 noon - 7 pm: Leela — an exhibition of paintings by Kartick Chandra Pyne and Partha Pratim Deb. Curated by Pranabranjan Ray. Till August 15 at The Art Walk, Emami Chisel Arts, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings by Dr Jayasmita Chatterjee. Till August 15 at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: Eternal Landscape — a group show of landscape art featuring works by Manisha Dey, Ramlal Dhar, Sohini Dhar, Gopal Ghose, Mrinal Mondol, Surya Prakash and Sandip Roy. Till August 16 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street, #2229 8641: An exhibition of paintings and kitsch art by a group of contemporary artists. Till August 16 (except August 15) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 5th floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: Touches Untuned — an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Arunangshu Roy, Barun Pramanik, Bhaskar Aditya, Dinesh Singh Khundrakpam and Nityam Singha Roy. Till August 19 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm - 8 pm: Calcutta Sculptors presents its 16th annual sculpture exhibition in celebration of the 75th birthday of eminent sculptor Shankar Ghosh. Till August 23 at SCA Gallery, 398 Rashbehari Avenue Bypass Connector; 3 pm - 8 pm: Commencement of the golden jubilee celebration of Society for Contemporary Artists (SCA). Showcasing small format works by its members. Till August 23 at The Promenade Lounge, Taj Bengal; 10 am - 11 pm: A solo exhibition of recent works by Subrata Ghosh. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till August 30 (except August 15 & Mondays) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 6 pm: An exhibition of paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics by the awardees at the Annual Exhibition 2009 of Birla Academy. Participants: Amlan Dutta, Anupam Das, Avijit Mukherjee, Debashree Das, Harjit Saha, Manjushree Chakraborty and Sujit Karan.

TALK

August 14 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Swami Atmapriyananda will speak in English on Kena Upanishad. August 14 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 7 pm: Prof. Arup Ranjan Pradhan will speak on Devi Bhagavad.

DRAMA

August 14 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Renaissance presents its latest Hindi production, Kaal Kothri. Direction: Aloke Chakravorty. August 14 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 7 pm: Theatrecian and Spandan present Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Direction: Devina Seth. August 14 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Lok-Krishti presents Tagore’s Laboratory. Direction: Falguni Chattopadhyay. August 14 & 15 at Gyan Manch: Padatik is presenting the 4th Patton School One Act Play Competition. August 15 at Tapan Theatre; 3 pm & 6.30 pm: Sayak presents Sanjhbela, directed by Meghnad Bhattacharya. August 15 at Minerva Theatre; 6.30 pm: Sundaram celebrates its 52nd anniversary with the staging of Sajano Bagan. Written, directed and performed by Manoj Mitra. August 15 at Mukta Angan Rangalaya; 6.30 pm: Bhowanipur Natnati will stage Nabin Tapaswini. Direction: Shyamal Mitra. August 15 at Spandan, 87 Park Street (1st floor); 7 pm: Spandan presents The Elephant Man (Gajbadan), a play in Hindi directed by Gazanfar Ali. Playwright: Edward Thomas. Translated by Zahir Anwar.

PERFORMING ARTS

August 14 at Rabindra Sadan; 6 pm: Tagore’s Shapmochan, with narration by Suchitra Mitra, Subir Mitra and Partha Mukhopadhyay; songs by Pramit Sen and Koel Adhikary, music by Biplab Mondal, and dances by Shanti Bose and Rekha Moitra. Also, a solo recital of Tagore’s songs on the rainy season by Pramit Sen. August 14 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake; 6 pm: EZCC presents Raas Lila, an Odissi dance drama based on padabali kirtan. To be presented by Debamitra Sengupta and other artistes of Mayur Lalit. August 14 & 15 at Indumati Sabhaghar, Jadavpur University; 6 pm: All India Music Festival hosts its half-yearly classical music and dance festival. Today: Bidisa Mukherjee (vocal), Siba Prasad Bhattacharjee (sitar), Sugata Chatterjee (vocal), Fullara Mukherjee (vocal) and Amlan Datta (sarod). August 14 at Calcutta School of Music, Sandre Hall; 7 pm: A monsoon concert of Indian classical ragas by Utsav Lal on the piano, Mita Nag on the sitar and Samin Nandy on the tabla. August 15 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6 pm: Biswabhara Prãn presents solo and chorus recitals and readings of Tagore songs and poems. Participants: Gouri Ghosh, Gopa Roy, Jonaki Choudhury, Tapan Sinha, Partha Ghosh, Pradip Sarkar, Mita Ghosh, Shamit Roy, Sumana Bhattacharya and Sanhita Banerjee. Also, songs and reading from Geetanjali by Shraboni Sen and Ranjan Bandyopadhyay.

EXHIBITION

August 14 & 15 at Anusthan Bhavan, Deshapriya Park, #9830066330; 11 am - 7 pm: Bina Shah displays her range of wedding, party-wear, fancy sarees and salwar suits. Till August 16 at Starmark; 10.30 am - 8 pm: The Giant Starmark Book Exhibition of a wide range of Penguin Black Classics and bestsellers. Till August 18 at The Hyatt Regency; 11 am - 8 pm: Art Karat presents Vivah, a collection of designer jewellery by Asha Kamal Modi.

FILM SHOW

August 14 at Nandan-II; 6 pm onwards: Films Division, Government of India and Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre jointly present ‘Indian Independence - Through a Different Lens’. Featuring documentaries made on the contributions of Bengal, Women, Press, Literature, Cinema and Unknown freedom fighters towards India’s freedom struggle: Bengal, Glimpses of Glorious Epoch by Samiran Dutta (at 6 pm), Writing Off the Raj by B.D. Ganga (at 6.20 pm), Literary Storm by Ali Sardar Jafri (at 6.40 pm), Aisee Thi Nariyan by Uma Shankar (at 7 pm), Unknown Freedom Fighters by S. Krishnamurti (at 7.20 pm), and Through a Different Lens by S. Krishnamurti (at 7.35 pm).

WORKSHOP

August 14 - 16 at Kenilworth Hotel: California Hypnosis Institute will conduct Basic Clinical Hypnotherapy course to understand the power of the subconscious mind and to learn self hypnosis. For details, call 90512 52665.

ANNIVERSARY

Till August 16 at 11 Sarkar Bye Lane, near Shreemani Market; 10 am onwards: To mark its pre-golden jubilee celebration and Sangeetacharya Vishmadev Chattopadhyay’s birth centenary, Muktanchal has organised a three-day variety programme. Today: Art contest participated by street-children (at 10 am); sports for children (at 4 pm); recitation contest (at 5 pm); all-Bengal inter-college debate competition (at 6 pm); and drama Bidhata Purush by IPTA (at 7.30 pm).All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph,6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244