One of the most picturesque and oldest campuses in the country became a living stage last weekend as the 200-year-old CMS College, Kottayam hosted a promenade theatre adaptation of N S Madhavan’s acclaimed novel ‘Lanthanbatheriyile Luthiniyakal’.

A unique blend of colonial and traditional Kerala architectural styles, the campus, with its sprawling botanic garden and heritage buildings, was transformed into a series of performance spaces for the play, staged by the college’s theatre club. Directed by Kollam native Athul Mohansingh, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, the production did away with the idea of a fixed stage. Instead, multiple locations across the campus served as shifting performance zones, with the audience walking alongside actors as the narrative moved from one space to another.

The novel, originally published in Malayalam in 2003 and later translated into English as ‘Litanies of Dutch Battery’, is set on a fictional island modelled on Kochi—imagined as a settlement shaped by migrants and refugees drawn from across the world.

“I was contacted by the theatre club for a production. I did not have any particular play in mind until I visited the campus,” said Athul. “The colonial architecture and layout gave me the idea. I recalled ‘Lanthanbatheriyile Luthiniyakal’ and proposed it to the theatre club.”

In promenade theatre, scenes unfold across different locations rather than on a single stage, often allowing spectators to move with the performance and experience the narrative in an immersive manner. As the play progressed through the lawn at the entrance, the premises of the Great Hall, the chapel, and a cliff-like location within the campus, the narrative—set in the mid-20th century—drew on regional legends, myths and colonial encounters, tracing Kochi’s long entanglement with successive foreign powers.

Sreenath Nair, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, said that the form gained prominence through mid-20th century European experiments that challenged conventional proscenium staging in favour of flexible, site-based performance spaces.

Despite its unconventional format, the form retains key elements of traditional theatre, live performers, structured narrative, rehearsal processes and design components such as lighting and sound, while fostering a shared physical presence between actors and audience.

For Athul, promenade theatre also meant doing away with expensive sets. “It is a waste of money and work, as they are useless after the play,” he said.

The two-hour-fifteen-minute performance, staged after 6.30pm, used minimal sets, relying instead on lighting to delineate performance zones across the campus. All the characters were dressed in white, allowing them to remain visible as the audience moved between locations in the night-time setting.

The production featured 24 actors, with all principal roles performed by female students. Teresa Anna Shaji, who portrayed Santiago, stood out in the first half, while Namitha Shiju, who played Valiya Markose Aasari, was a highlight in the latter part. Rehearsals were held for over 40 days. “Initially, there were doubts about promenade theatre. I had to convince the actors first,” said Athul, adding that several indigenous performance traditions such as Theyyam, Padayani and Ramlila have long embodied similar spatial storytelling methods.

Mounted at an estimated cost of Rs 6 lakh, the production used the campus as an integral part of its staging. As audiences moved between the chapel, the Great Hall premises and the garden, the performance tracked a narrative shaped by migration, memory and colonial encounters, central to Madhavan’s fictional island of Lanthanbathery and its engagement with Kochi’s layered past.

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