Bay Area theater group Krea will be presenting Thanimai, a Tamil play written by Anand Raghav and directed by Dheepa Ramanujam. This will be the play’s second run in the Bay Area, which was staged in 2003 by Krea with two sold-out shows.
Thanimai is a portrayal of the life of a lonely and disheartened old man who discovers how to live cheerfully. Always surrounded by family and friends, Mani (Naveen Nathan) wished for his space as a youth, and decided to strike out on his own and enjoy life on his terms. The solitude that he longed for comes to him later in life with his wife’s passing and his children settling abroad. Not being able to bear the solitude, Mani falls into a depression. At this time he meets Sridhar (Jay Ganesh) who shows him how to live life fully and happily in a changing society.
In 2009, Ramanujam was invited to stage the play in the Tamil drama festival in Houston. After a gap of six years, Thanimai was again received extremely well. This encouraged Ramanujam and the cast to take the play to Chennai this past summer.
Traveling out of the country had its own challenges. With no sponsorship, the cast and crew had to pay their own way to India. In addition, not all the cast could make it and Thanimai went to India with three new actors. Still, the play had seven sold-out shows and was written up very favorably in Kalki, Times of India, Madras Plus, and The Hindu.
Krea’s Thanimai will be a fundraiser for the Bharati Tamil Sangam.
Nov. 6, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Jackson Theatre, Ohlone College, 43600 Misison Blvd., Fremont. $15. krea.thanimai@gmail.com. (510) 353-1790, (510) 435-5034.www.kreacreations.com.