Intercontinental Bienal
Meeleru - India
National Museum of the Republic
Play Name: Meeluru
In the depths of the forest, where ancient trees stand as sentinels of a bygone era, a Primordial woman awakens, her essence forged from the stone and clay of the earth, yet pulsing with the vital force of liberation. She wrests the key from statues frozen in solitude, their silence a testament to the servitude that has petrified humanity.
With this symbol of emancipation, she unlocks the gates of the Theater Land, where the melodies of the forgotten echo through the expanse like a clarion call to the downtrodden. Her song is a paean to the wanderers, those who have lost their homeland to the ravages of war, their bodies mere vessels, adrift in a sea of despair, yet still yearning for the shores of freedom.
Like a hammer shattering the chains of convention, she pierces the walls of separation, erected by the hands of humanity to divide and conquer. Caste, religion, race, language, and nation – all are mere facades, masks that conceal the abyss of ignorance, and she tears them asunder with the ferocity of a storm.
Intercontinental Bienal
Finalist Play: Meeluru
Performing Arts: Country; India
Company
Manalmagudi Theatre Land
Director
S. Murugaboopathy
Meeleru
Short film projection at National Museum of the Republic, Brasilia, Brazil, South America. Day: July 04, 2025
The museum is located on the Esplanade of the Ministries in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil.
National Museum of the Republic . Brazil, South America
Manalmagudi Theatre Land
Concept Design and Direction
Manalmagudi Theatre Land based in Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu, India is a contemporary Tamil theatre troupe. It continuously experiments with non-conventional theatrical content and forms in terms of theatrical language, text, property, music, visual and space. Manalmagudi seeks to spread the seeds of theatre, deeply rooted in culture, possessing PALLUYIRI (multiple-organisms) life-forms, beyond human centeredness.
Manalmagudi’s main productions are instrumental in bringing about a new genre of Indian theatre as an unexplored theatrical vocabulary, by not re-enacting rituals into theatre but by embodying a theatrical ritual. Focus is not merely on human centric theatre practices, but on incorporating theatrical language of non-human forms such as animals and plants, dolls and masks, sculptures and paintings within the productions. Rehearsals and performances take place in space ranging from natural landscapes like indigenous forests, Sand dunes, rocky terrains to prosceniums in towns and cities.
Since 1998 Manalmagudi has had more than 300 performances
across Tamil Nadu and over 30 performances across India that includes many International and National Theatre
Festivals. S. Murugaboopathy is founder and the director of Manalmagudi Theatre Land. He is an actor, playwright,
musician also teaches and experiments theatre with children for last 20 years. He has received the prestigious award of “Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2011)” honored by Sangeet Natak Akademi, (India’s National Academy for performing arts) New Delhi, India.