FirstAct: Watch Between the Banks, a performative theatre production on Manipur's tryst with developmental discrepancies

Editor’s note: With  FirstAct , Firstpost is collaborating with theatre and improv artists from all over India, who’ll perform short pieces or readings over a Zoom video-conference call.

After FirstAct’s  debut show  with Improv Comedy Bangalore, followed by Drama Queen’s  For Tomorrow , Theatre Jil Jil Ramamani’s  Haiku in a Bun , OGLAM’s  Abey Yaar! , Chanakya Vyas’  Leftovers , and MD Pallavi’s  Salt , we present our next — Between the Banks.

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The planning commission of India in 1992 approved the Dolaithabi Barrage Project and it was inaugurated on 4 January 2019. The project, when completed, is envisaged to provide irrigation to 7545 hectares of agriculture land in downstream villages. The celebratory mood quickly faded as adverse realities slowly unfolded both upstream and downstream of the Dolaithabi dam and villagers started raising complaints. The complaints pertain not only to the non-provision of water for the agriculture fields, but also the faulty nature of the designs of the canals, leading to a reverse, unexpected and problematic flow of water.

Between the Banks aims to understand and embody the irregularities in infrastructure — its serious repercussions for people as well as the environment, and the faulty promises undertaken by the concerned authorities — to create a physical performance.

Also read on Firstpost — FirstAct: In ‘Between the Banks’, a physical performance embodies Manipur’s infrastructural irregularities, repercussions

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