(From above) Moments from noBody, Joolios Sezar and Miss Julie

It will be no more than a crack through which to glimpse theatre from across the globe, but it will be a real revelation for those who can catch it.

Calcutta is the venue for a Satellite Festival to the main Bharat Rangmahotsav in Delhi, started from last year. Organised jointly by National School of Drama (NSD) and Paschim Banga Natya Akademi, the festival (January 12-30) will feature leading troupes from Germany, Switzerland, Iran, China, Poland, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Bangladesh. There will also be a few selections from Mysore, Chennai, Delhi, Imphal, Pondicherry and Pune.

To get Calcutta chosen for a Satellite venue (after Bangalore last year) required some lobbying and lots of planning but it helped that the Bengal government lent its “full support” to the initiative, say organisers. Next year’s Satellite will move to Mumbai, revealed Samik Bandyopadhyay, vice-chairman NSD and member of Paschim Banga Natya Akademi, adding that the next time Calcutta gets a chance to play host could be a decade later.

The main festival opens at Delhi’s Siri Fort on January 6. Of the 52 plays to be staged, 14 will come to Calcutta. “We have deliberately tried to get as many foreign troupes as possible because their theatre has been so rarely seen here. There will be groups that operate away from the oppressive regime of their home countries but sneak in every now and then to give underground performances,” said Bandyopadhyay.

The thrust this year is on the use of dance in drama. “Dance has immense possibilities, especially in bridging language barriers. Unfortunately in Bengal there has been little exploration beyond Rabindranath,” rued Bandyopadhyay.

On the inaugural day, Sasha Waltz from Berlin will present noBody with 25 dancers. The play confronts us with feelings aroused by the realisation of mortality and tries to render the non-physical visible through body language.

Several Witty Observations based on Polish writer Grombrowicz’s journals unleashes black humour centred on the growing identity crisis and the desperate bid for domination, directed by Leszek Bzdyl.

A non-verbal solo based on Manto by choreographer Maya Krishna Rao is called Khol Do.

Kannappar Kuravanji, a path-breaking classic-folk fusion developed originally by Rukmini Devi Arundale, will be performed by the Kalakshetra foundation of Chennai. Also worth a watch will be Veenapani Chawla’s The Hare and the Tortoise and Rashid Ansari’s Kaikeyi.

The other focal area of the festival, the remake of classics especially from one language to another, has found representation in a quirky Joolios Sezar by Nightmare. Shakespeare’s names have all been changed to Persian and a new twist added to its end by playwright Kiomara Moradi. Miss Julie is a Chinese version of a Swedish play directed by Zhou Shen. O Lear — King Lear in Kannada directed by A.G. Chidambara Rao Jambe — has a happy ending in this translation by poet H.S. Shiva Prakash.

Others to watch out for will be Tu, the Marathi abstract play based on 13th-century Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, Hanglai by Yumnam Rajendra from Imphal presents a world ruled by puppets, while Life Cord by South Korean director Oh Tae Suk is a tale of intrigue and assassinations. Magic Hour by Arjun Raina, Hell’s Bells and Furtive Folly by directors Beatrice Jaccard and Peter Schelling of Switzerland, Pratham Parth directed by Bapi Bose (Delhi), Checkpoint by Ruwanthie de Chickera (Sri Lanka), Golapjan by S.M. Solaiman’s troupe from Dhaka…

The allotted auditoriums are Rabindra Sadan and Sisir Mancha. The show timings will 6 pm at Rabindra Sadan, and 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm at Sisir Mancha. Tickets will be available at Rabindra Sadan and Sisir Mancha counters from January 6.