November 13, 2004 at 7 pm

Dark Horse, Walking Down Arun Kolatkar's Lane
A performance, using dialogue, verse and music to explore the reclusive poet's mind

Venue: Amethyst, Sundar Mahal, Padmavathy Road, Jeypore Colony (Off Gopalapuram), Chennai-86

Design from cover of Sarpa Satra

Cast	:	Dhritiman Chaterji Craig Fernandes Bhagirathi Narayanan Abhinav Ramnarayan Anushka Ravishankar
Vocals	:	Savitha Narasimhan
Lights	:	M. Natesh
Equipment	:	Koothu-P-Pattarai
Sound	:	Audioview
Script, Music, Direction	:	Gowri Ramnarayan

Irony and compassion unite in Arun Kolatkar's (1932-2004) austere verse. With a voice equally at ease in Marathi and English, his unique visions light up dark, sceptic spaces, mirroring the real and surreal. Jejuri (winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize) confronts the aridity of existence with a humour black and wry. The Kala Ghoda Poems balance wonder with horror, as they mythicise the "city without a soul". Sarpa Satra, the ancient tale of Janamejaya's spectacular ritual to exterminate the race of snakes, turns into an echoic metaphor of contemporary reality.