28/08/2026
Chevittorma: A Prayer for a Drowning Coast
In the Latin Catholic villages of coastal Ernakulam, chevittorma is an old prayer whispered directly into the ear of someone dying, or too ill to hear it any other way. It is not meant to be overheard. It is meant to be felt, close, urgent, final.
A community theatre company has borrowed that word for something larger: a play performed by people whose homes the tide is taking.
Chevittorma is not fiction. The performers, residents of Puthenvelikkara, Kumbalangi and Ezhikkara, stage their own flood nights, losses and adaptations, on a set built as a shallow pool of real water. The ripples are not a design choice. They echo a tide that, for many families, never fully recedes.
The work grew from an attempt to gather data on recurring tidal flooding along this coast, where official records often fail to capture the lives of those living with water year after year. Theatre became an act of witness.
Now comes Children's Chevittorma.
Young performers step into the same ankle-deep water their homes may sit in for months of the year. But they are not presented as victims of a crisis they didn't create. They are observers, storytellers and participants in building a more resilient coast.
On 5 September 2026 at 7 pm, historic Kottapuram Market, a centuries-old trading ground, will become that flooded stage. As dusk settles over the waterfront, the old market's business of buying and selling gives way to another kind of exchange: a generation telling the rest of us what it means to grow up learning to live with a changing tide.
If you are a traveller, local, coastal community member, researcher, artist, climate practitioner, or simply someone who wants to listen, come.
Come to witness.
Come to listen.
Come and sit with a coast learning to live with water.
Chevittorma Concept & Direction Sreejith Ramanan 📍 Kottapuram Market
📅 5 September 2026
⏰ 7 pm
