Fun, frolic and gossip A farce by comedy genius Neil Simon, Rumors is a commentary on the absurdities of urban, affluent professionals, who are neither sophisticated nor secure, though they form part of the social ‘elite’. Theatrecian has “Indianised, and messed with” the play to suit the mindset of the local audience. While the original is set in New York, this version is based in Calcutta. The character names and traits have been changed, and many situations have been altered to give the play a more authentic Indian feel. Whilst the characters are affluent, upper-class socialites, they display some typical behavioural patterns exclusive to our society. What has remained apart from the plot are Simon’s wonderful one-liners and extended jokes, the extremely complicated set design, the rapid movement on stage and, of course, the very American spelling of its title. In the play, four formally-dressed couples are invited to an anniversary party of a wealthy couple. When they arrive, they discover that there are no servants, the hostess is missing and her husband is in a state of mind most unfit for playing host at a party. Comic complications arise when each of the invitees is struck with panic and desire to out-do the others. Also, given everyone’s upper-class status, they decide they need to do everything possible to conceal the evening’s events, of which they are very ashamed. The result is a series of hilarious goof-ups which culminates in two city cops investigating the scene of buffoonery. Produced by Priyanka Goenka Gupta and Tathagata Chowdhury. Directed by Kanak Gupta. Event: Play in English, Rumors, presented by Theatrecian When: Today at 7 pm Where: Gyan Manch

ART

Till May 29 at Studio 21, 17L Dover Terrace, #2486 6735; Monday: 3 pm - 7 pm, Tuesday - Saturday: 11 am - 7 pm: Prints 21 — an exhibition of recent works by Srikanta Paul, Dhrupadi Ghose, Jaysree Basak, Santanu Chakraborty, Riddhi Narayan Nandy, Sujay Mukherjee and Annabel Schenck. Till August 14 (except Sundays & public holidays) at CIMA Gallery, Sunny Towers (2nd floor), 43 Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, #2485 8717 / 2485 8509; Mondays: 3 pm - 7 pm, Tuesdays - Saturdays: 2 pm - 7 pm: Summer Show 2010. Featuring works by Manas Acharya, Akhilesh, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Sumitro Basak, Shipra Bhattacharya, Bhuribai, Tapas Biswas, Sakti Burman, Jayasri Burman, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Jogen Chowdhury, Sougata Das, Chandan Das, Meera Devidayal, Anju Dodiya, Debraj Goswami, Ramendranath Kastha, Bhupen Khakhar, Goutam Khamaru, Bimal Kundu, Subrata Kundu, Paresh Maity, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Asim Pal, Niranjan Pradhan, Mona Rai, Satyajit Roy, Suhas Roy, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, Kingshuk Sarkar, Ajit Seal, Shakila, Lalu Prosad Shaw, Shuvaprasanna, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Paramjit Singh, T. Vaikuntam, Yusuf and others. Till May 26 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Boishakhi presents a group show of paintings and drawings by Asutosh Bhattacharjee, Arijit Chowdhuri, Nilotpal Sinha, Saibal Das and Samir Bhattacharya. Till May 26 at Academy of Fine Arts, New South ‘A’ Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: A group show of paintings, photographs and metal by Chandan Roy, Charu Goel, Nilay Biswas, Pravat Majhi, Sasanka Ghosh and Supriyo Bagh. Till May 28 at Gallery Nakshatra, 2/1 Outram Street, #2289 2982: Lluvia — an exhibition of recent paintings by Raj Sekhar Aich. Till May 28 at Gandhara Art Gallery, 1B Gurusaday Road, Flat 5A (Palm Springs); 2 pm - 8 pm: Re-exploring the Explored — a group exhibition of works in watercolours. Till May 30 at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #24653212; 11 am - 7 pm: Fragile Order, a solo exhibition of Anita Gopal’s work. Till May 31 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Agni Basu and Anirban Banerjee. Till May 31 (except Tuesday) at The Halo Heritage Art Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road, #24190133/ 9836405408; 3 pm - 8 pm: Creation — a group show of paintings. Till May 31 (except Sunday) at Ahuja Museum for Arts, 26 Lee Road, ground floor; 12 noon - 7 pm: Ancient Love — a series of paintings by Ganesh C. Basu. Till June 1 (except Sunday) at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road, #24484925, 24497931; 11 am - 7 pm: Nature Revisited, a group show curated by Jayashree Chakravarty and Anirudh Chari. Till June 5 (except Sunday) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #2289 3027/5041; 12 noon - 7 pm: Progress of Non-Abstract Geometry, an exhibition of paintings by Ritendra Roy. Till June 5 (except Sunday) at Experimenter, 2/1 Hindusthan Road; #4001 2289 / 2463 0465; 11 am - 7 pm: Who Are You, Defenders Of The Universe? — a solo show by Pakistani artist Mehreen Murtaza. Featuring digital C prints, video, LED installation, and sound-and-light cube installation. Till June 19 (except Sundays) at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G-7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park Road, #30534053 / 30584060; 11 am - 7 pm: Hyderabad Hues — an exhibition of art works by eminent artists of Hyderabad.

DRAMA

May 24 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Theatre Workshop presents Juddha Paristhiti, dramatised and directed by Ashok Mukhopadhyay.

rabindra jayanti

May 9 - 25 & May 31 - June 6 (except June 2) at Rabindra Sadan & Rabindra Sadan premises: Rabindra Sadan and the I&CA department, Government of West Bengal celebrate Tagore’s birth anniversary. Today at Rabindra Sadan Mukta Mancha, 5.30 pm: Participants: Sunandan (chorus), Sanjukta Talukdar, Irene Sarkar, Ishita Dasgupta, Nandini Chowdhury, Shyamasree Dasgupta, Pratiti Maiti, Purna Bandopadhyay, Padmanabha Dasgupta, Mounita Chattopadhyay, Somali Dutta, Mitra Bandyopadhyay, Indrani Halder and others. At Rabindra Sadan, 6 pm: Aamar Aapon Gaan (dir: Subhas Chowdhury) by Indira; Parir Desher Bandho Duar (Sraboni Sen, Subrata Sengupta & others) by Nritikalakendra; and Mayar Khela (dir: Polly Guha) by Indian Cultural Troupe.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till May 29 at Rathindra Mancha, Jorasanko Thakurbari; 5.30 pm: Rabindra Janmotsav, organised by Rabindra Bharati Society. Today: Songs by Mriganka Sarkar, Indira Bandyopadhyay, Sreekumar Chattopadhyay and Alpana Roy. Also, ‘geeti-alekhya’ Aaji Pranami Tomare Cholibo Nath, presented by Uttarayan Shilpigosthi and directed by Chitralekha Choudhury. May 28 (6 pm), May 29 (4.15 pm) & May 30 (3.30 pm) at Uttam Mancha: Rasikhapriya hosts its mid-year series of Carnatic music festival. May 28 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: Jahnavi Centre for Performing Arts will present Tagore’s Raktakarobi as an experimental dance theatre. Concept, direction and choreography: Madhuboni Chatterjee. Music composition: Manoj Murali Nair. May 30 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6 pm: Bhavna presents a solo recital of Tagore songs by Abhirup Guhatahkurta.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till May 29 at Weavers Studio Cetre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place; 10 am - 7 pm: Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts and Calcutta Rescue present an exhibition of photographs (showcasing moving portraits of Calcutta Rescue’s patients) by Donna Todd. Till May 30 at The Palladian Lounge, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry; 10 am - 8 pm: Moments — an exhibition showcasing a collection of photographs taken by Siddharth.

FILM SHOW

May 20 - 26 at Nandan II; 4.30 pm& 6.30 pm: Chalachitre Rabindranath — a festival of films based on Tagore’s work. Today: Kabuliwala (Hindi; dir: Hemen Gupta) at 4.30 pm & Chheleta (dir: Santosh Ghoshal) at 6.30 pm. May 24 - 27 at Max Mueller Bhavan; 5 pm & 7 pm: Summer Screenings. Today: Sieben Sommersprossen (Seven Freckels) (Dir: Herrmann Zschoche, 1978, colour, 79 min.) at 5 pm; Annas Sommer (Anna’s Summer) (Dir: Jeanine Meerapfel, 2001, colour, 91 min.) at 7 pm. All German films have English sub-titles.

TALK

May 24 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 6 pm: Swami Omkaratmananda will speak on Yogavashisthasar. May 24 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Prof. Tapadhir Bhattacharjee will speak in Bengali on Bharatiya Samskritir Aitijhye Mahabharat. May 24 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math; 7 pm: Prof. Amalendu Chakraborty will speak on Sri Ramakrishna Lila Parshad.

EXHIBITION

Till May 24 at P-249 Purna Das Road, #24644027, 40086878; 11 am - 8.30 pm: Darbari showcases exclusive chikankari fabrics, sarees, kurtis, kameezes and dupattas. Till May 30 at Soumya’s Creation, 57/9 Ballygunge Circular Road; 11 am - 8 pm: Summer Cool — an exhibition of children’s clothes, saris, kurtas, costume jewellery, bags and home accessories. Till May 31 (except Tuesday) at Halo Heritage Art Shop (ground floor), 26 Ritchie Road; 1 pm - 8 pm: Artlife — an exhibition of traditional textiles and home accessories. Till June 15 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road; 10.30 am - 8 pm: Starmark Carnival — a wide range of kids’ books with attractive offers

WORKSHOP

May 24 - 28 at Calcutta School of Music: Kidz-Fit Summer Camp — programme for kids (2+ onwards) under Nandini Sinha’s Classical Aerobics. For details, call 9874718117. May 24 - 29 at Reliance World store on CIT Road, Phoolbagan; 10.30 am - 4.30 pm: Robotics Camp for school students organised by Reliance World. For details, call 1800-200-9191. May 25 - 27 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road; 11 am - 1 pm: Starmark will hold a three-day workshop on theatre for those between 10 years and 15 years, to be conducted by Usha Ganguli. For details, call 99039 85097. May 25 - 27 at Starmark , G-202 City Centre, Salt Lake; 11 am - 12. 30 pm: Starmark will hold craft workshops for children between 5 years and 12 years, to be conducted by talented, young artists Soma Das and Anjan Modak, covering the making of paper masks (first day), bookmarks (second day), paper collages (third day), animal figures with paper cups and straws (fifth day) and monoprint painting (fourth day). For details, call 99039 85097. May 25 - 28 at Nehru Children’s Museum: Summer workshops for children: (1) Human Figure Drawing (2 pm - 5 pm) for 7 yrs to 18 yrs to be conducted by senior faculty members of the painting department; (2) Odissi dance (3 pm - 6 pm) for 9 yrs to 18 yrs to be conducted by Arnab Bandyopadhyay.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