Media boycotts "Rape Workshop"
Thrissur, May 17 2005
"Rape Workshop" (Balatsanga Pariseelanacamp), a streetplay in the backdrop of a few recent rape cases, took the Thrissur town
by storm on Tuesday. The play was staged at three major spots in the Kerala town. This was following the overwhelming response from the crowds, as the original plan was to do only one show yesterday.
People from the all the major print media were present at the venues, the local television channels covered the event, some newspapers had even carried an announcement of the show to be held, but the event was not reported in the print media at all, despite the fact that most of the leading dailies in Malayalam now have an edition coming out from Thrissur. Malayala Manorama, the leading regional language newspaper in the country, carried an announcement-- rather a warning-- in their Thrissur edition yesterday that a play with rapes as the background was going to be staged in the town. They also evaded reporting the event,
and while contacted, they made it clear that they were "not interested".
"Rape Workshop" argued that the way in which we bring up our boys and girls actually makes the society prone to rapes. It put the blame partly on the current family structure too. The play was staged by a group of young women and men. Some members of the group are passed out students from School of Drama, Thrissur. "Rapes don't happen because boys and girls mingle, but because they do not", said Kamal, an alumnus of School of Drama and a member of the group. The group plans to perform in more towns of Kerala in the coming days.
