An old man recollected his youth and moments from his past in the surreal TRIMITI (Marathi) written by Sachin Kundalkar and directed by Irawati Karnik. Enacted by Hemu Adhikari, Rajan Bhise, Adwait Dadarkar and Swati Chitnis, TRIMITI had a complex narrative that was not simple to discern. Seemingly connected and yet disparate, each scene in this short piece came across as at attempt to unravel the subconscious feelings of the narrator in the piece. Karnik's direction enhanced the abstract nature of the text in moments such as when actor Rajan Bhise talks of his father's (Hemu Adhikari) death.

It all started with Shakespeare and it all ended with him as the last piece of the evening SAACHI VAAT CHE (Gujarati) was presented. Written by Aatish Kapadia and directed by Vipul Shah, recognized faces of the Gujarati stage and the small screen came together for this last act. The crux of the piece was that Shakespeare's canvas has done justice only to male characters and that his female characters have nothing to do but play second fiddle to their men. So Sejal Shah who plays an actor in this piece is thoroughly disappointed with the bard. And although not directly railing at what she assumes to be the bard's sexist attitude, she mounts her attack at a play script written by a Gujarati writer.

She can't think of doing another play that has no place for a woman's voice. Her point of view finally wins the empathy of actors J.D. Majhethia, Dharmendra Gohil and Chirag Vora who have their own roles to play in this trivialized piece. Playwright Aatish Kapadia's discontent with the bard though is clearly off the mark. He forgets that Shakespeare was a man of his time and even so his plays have yielded some very intriguing women characters such as Lady Macbeth. And surely, it is quite ridiculous to use Shakespeare as a punching bag for our own regressive attitude towards women. Theatre Company 'Rage' could have been spared the mock protest that was launched against it as part of the piece.

I am also compelled to think if any of these pieces have the potential to be converted into proper plays. It's just a curiosity but I'll let it pass for another day. For now it will suffice to say that the evening had succeeded to raise a sparkling toast to the theatre and its enduring presence in our lives. We went home happy for its sake, content in the belief that its world will continue to enrich our own little ones.