கோட்டம் / Kottam by Janakaraliya

Sun 30th Mar | General Audience | Tamil | 18:30 – 20:00 | 90 mins | Mihilaka Medura

Kottam is an adaptation of Russian dramatist Evgeny Schwartz’s play The Dragon. While the original work was written in natural conversational language, the Tamil adaptation Kottam follows traditional Tamil folk dance, singing and music forms. In the post-war era of 2010, Janakaraliya mobile theatre was installed in the grounds of St Xaviers school in Nalllur and a drama festival was held for 10 days. People of Jaffna, who, even a year later, were still in the habit of sequestering at home after 4pm due to long-term curfew rules during the war, flocked to the Janakaraliya mobile theatre and watched plays in the night. When the last few days of the drama festival approached, it became so popular that an extra show at 10pm had to be held. As a result of the ensuing theatre-related training and theatre development work that followed between Janakaraliya and the community, two new theatre groups – Shemmugam and Aarohana – were born in Jaffna. Kottam was created in 2022, with the aim of developing the skills of the artists from Shemmugam and Aarohana theatre groups.