DARK HORSE

A woman journalist recalls her single meeting with Arun Kolatkar, one of the finest contemporary poets of India, at a restaurant in Kolatkar’s favourite Kala Ghoda area in Mumbai. She traces the events that led to her encounter with the reclusive man, and relives her interview with him. “Dark Horse” is based on ten poems by Kolatkar, conjuring the life of the poems in a multi-layered performance against a music soundscape. Not ‘recited’, the poems are assimilated into a theatrical experience that carries action and emotion forward creating moods that may be flippant or sombre, or pure whimsy. Some are juxtaposed with lines from older bhakti poets like Tukaram and Mirabai. The play captures the spirit of Kolatkar’s poetry in all its wry humour and deep compassion for all living things.

Biographies

Gowri Ramnarayan has a PhD in Comparative Aesthetics and is a feature writer with The Hindu, Chennai. She was a vocal accompanist in concert to the late Carnatic music legend M S Subbulakshmi. Gowri has translated two plays of Vijay Tendulkar, as well as short stories of Kalki Krishnamurti. She has authored biographies and children’s books. She has been a member of the Fipresci Jury of the international critics’ association at film festivals in London, Venice, Valladolid, Oslo and Mumbai. Both Dark Horse and her other play Rural Phantasy have won critical acclaim.