Theatre

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Play 10 : Substance of being

The performance is a devised piece which highlights a personal form of sharing vulnerabilities that drives us close to ourselves and one another. The nature of Intimacy as contact, proximity, comfort and tension is put forward by means of bodies, clothes, relationships we share, mannerisms both displaying and concealing, reveal the nature of intimacy or its issues. By means of Interaction between Individuals and personal items the play “Substance of Being” is a peek into the bareness of our personal lives exposing our beliefs and realities. In its vignettes, the play explores how this form of sharing is mediated in the society and whether what truly remains of it is authentic or not. Intimacy in a relationship is a feeling of being close, and emotionally connected and supported. It means being able to share a whole range of thoughts, feelings and experiences that we have as human beings. It involves being open and talking through your thoughts and emotions, letting your guard down (being vulnerable), and showing someone else how you feel and what your hopes and dreams are.Intimacy is built up over time, and it requires patience and effort from both partners to create and maintain. Discovering intimacy with someone you love can be one of the most rewarding aspects of a relationship.Apart from emotional and sexual intimacy, you can also be intimate intellectually, recreationally, financially, spiritually, creatively (for example, renovating your home) and at times of crisis (working as a team during tough times).Intimacy is achieved when we become close to someone else and are reassured that we are loved and accepted for who we are. Children usually develop intimacy with parents and peers. As adults, we seek intimacy in close relationships with other adults, friends, family and with a partner. Upon hearing the word, you probably immediately jumped to thinking about physical intimacy, but other forms of intimacy are just as important, especially when it comes to romantic relationships. Let's take a look at some different forms of intimacy.While a hug or holding a hand are both examples of physical intimacy, this type is most commonly used in reference to sex. And while sex is important in relationships, you can also demonstrate physical intimacy through kissing, holding hands, cuddling, and skin-to-skin touching.Emotional intimacy can be one of the most critical factors of a relationship. It is characterized by being able to share your deepest, most personal feelings with another person. When people experience this type of intimacy, they feel safe and secure enough to share and know that they will be understood, affirmed, and cared forExamples of emotional intimacy include having conversations about what you both want in the future, talking about things that you are worried about, and discussing a stressful event at work and being comforted.While this can be referring to religious ideas and beliefs, it can also mean something more profound, like sharing actual beliefs and values.3 Your values and beliefs can align with religion or even health and wellness. Regardless, it's important to share these critical aspects of your life with your partner.Examples of spiritual intimacy include participating in religious practices, discussing spiritual topics, or spending time together while marveling at a moving sight.

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Play 9 : Kite runner

The Kite Runner, an outstanding and unforgettable theatrical tour de force is touring the UK again in 2020.

Based on Khaled Hosseini’s international bestselling novel, this haunting tale of friendship spans cultures and continents and follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.

Afghanistan is a country on the verge of war and best friends are about to be torn apart. It’s a beautiful afternoon in Kabul, the skies are full of colour and the streets are full of the excitement of a kite flying tournament, but no one can foresee the terrible incident that will shatter their lives forever.

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Play 8 : Unsung Music

UNSUNG MUSIC

The Mridangam is an instrument made of Buffalo and Cow Skin, still it is considered a holy

instrument in Carnatic Music. The people who make the mridangam have to face caste- based atrocities and disrimintaion. While those who play it revel in its gglory Rahul and

Edwin tread through this divide and explore whether making art is a political, and through

that explore the limits of their friendship.

Unsung Music explores disrimination on the Carnatic Stage through the tale of two families, intertwined in their struggle with the hierarchies of art and artforms prevalent in our society. The play tries to define a space for caste, class and gender conversations in the closed knit

community of classical music.

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Play 7 : The Curse of Hamlet

Prince Hamlet is depressed. Having been summoned home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend his father's funeral, he is shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried. The Queen has wed Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is "foul incest." Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet was his father's heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play.

When his father's ghost visits the castle, Hamlet's suspicions are confirmed. The Ghost complains that he is unable to rest in peace because he was murdered. Claudius, says the Ghost, poured poison in King Hamlet's ear while the old king napped. Unable to confess and find salvation, King Hamlet is now consigned, for a time, to spend his days in Purgatory and walk the earth by night. He entreats Hamlet to avenge his death, but to spare Gertrude, to let Heaven decide her fate.

Hamlet vows to affect madness — puts "an antic disposition on" — to wear a mask that will enable him to observe the interactions in the castle, but finds himself more confused than ever. In his persistent confusion, he questions the Ghost's trustworthiness. What if the Ghost is not a true spirit, but rather an agent of the devil sent to tempt him? What if killing Claudius results in Hamlet's having to relive his memories for all eternity? Hamlet agonizes over what he perceives as his cowardice because he cannot stop himself from thinking. Words immobilize Hamlet, but the world he lives in prizes action.

In order to test the Ghost's sincerity, Hamlet enlists the help of a troupe of players who perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago to which Hamlet has added scenes that recreate the murder the Ghost described. Hamlet calls the revised play The Mousetrap, and the ploy proves a success. As Hamlet had hoped, Claudius' reaction to the staged murder reveals the King to be conscience-stricken. Claudius leaves the room because he cannot breathe, and his vision is dimmed for want of light. Convinced now that Claudius is a villain, Hamlet resolves to kill him. But, as Hamlet observes, "conscience doth make cowards of us all."

In his continued reluctance to dispatch Claudius, Hamlet actually causes six ancillary deaths. The first death belongs to Polonius, whom Hamlet stabs through a wallhanging as the old man spies on Hamlet and Gertrude in the Queen's private chamber. Claudius punishes Hamlet for Polonius' death by exiling him to England. He has brought Hamlet's school chums Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Denmark from Germany to spy on his nephew, and now he instructs them to deliver Hamlet into the English king's hands for execution. Hamlet discovers the plot and arranges for the hanging of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. Ophelia, distraught over her father's death and Hamlet's behavior, drowns while singing sad love songs bemoaning the fate of a spurned lover. Her brother, Laertes, falls next.

Laertes, returned to Denmark from France to avenge his father's death, witnesses Ophelia's descent into madness. After her funeral, where he and Hamlet come to blows over which of them loved Ophelia best, Laertes vows to punish Hamlet for her death as well.

Unencumbered by words, Laertes plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet. In the midst of the sword fight, however, Laertes drops his poisoned sword. Hamlet retrieves the sword and cuts Laertes. The lethal poison kills Laertes. Before he dies, Laertes tells Hamlet that because Hamlet has already been cut with the same sword, he too will shortly die. Horatio diverts Hamlet's attention from Laertes for a moment by pointing out that "The Queen falls."

Gertrude, believing that Hamlet's hitting Laertes means her son is winning the fencing match, has drunk a toast to her son from the poisoned cup Claudius had intended for Hamlet. The Queen dies.

As Laertes lies dying, he confesses to Hamlet his part in the plot and explains that Gertrude's death lies on Claudius' head. Finally enraged, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and then pours the last of the poisoned wine down the King's throat. Before he dies, Hamlet declares that the throne should now pass to Prince Fortinbras of Norway, and he implores his true friend Horatio to accurately explain the events that have led to the bloodbath at Elsinore. With his last breath, he releases himself from the prison of his words: "The rest is silence."

The play ends as Prince Fortinbras, in his first act as King of Denmark, orders a funeral with full military honors for slain Prince Hamlet.

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Play 6 : Adhhe Adhure

One of the most abiding perplexities of life is family. While men, women, and children aspire to have a family life, it is far from harmonious. A family passing through a rough phase can be an unbearable torture. This play deals with this grim reality and unfolds many aspects of family life.

Mohan Rakesh has written a play that brings out all the troubles that a family faces. The head of the family, the husband and the father, is passing through a long phase of low income. A youngster is not able to complete education and find a job. A daughter is in an unhappy marriage. A kid throws tantrums that are difficult for the family to deal with. The unending misery of the wife and the mother is ever willing to beg for the family's benefits. AADHE ADHURE play brings out these universal situations to life and makes an emotional impact.

This piece of work differs from other noteworthy creations on family drama in the plot points. Some parts may appear outdated, such as children being scolded for reading pornography. In the age of the internet, this does not seem to be a very big offence nor does it cause a family uproar. In the play, the woman of the house is looking to run away with the first available man. This also is an interesting plot point as she finds out that the men who court her do not want to share their lives with her or take her home. Recently, in a popular movie, a man seeks to leave the house and gets rejected by the woman who he seeks. Perhaps, in a mainstream movie, a wife seeking to do the same may not work. But, in a theatrical play like this, it is given an opportunity to be explored. The play does not end on a note that provides a solution to these family troubles.

The actors are a mixture of seasoned performers as well as learners. Geeta Tyagi delivers her role with perfection, bringing out different moods. Vijay Kumar plays many parts and it works for the audience. Ashutosh Khare also works fine. The other actors still need to get both the words as well as the emotions right.

Overall, AADHE ADHURE - a much-staged classic of Indian theatre - gives you a reason to watch this new production, despite family drama being part and parcel of television, films and web series. The staging of family troubles hits harder than the way the screen does. The play can be useful for couples or family members to watch together if they are looking to open up communication on touchy matters, or even help them empathise with each other.

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Play 5 : Kaand

Delhi, the National Capital, records one out of four crimes in the country. Abductions, rapes and robberies are rampant. It is a well-known fact that nights in Delhi are not safe. Kaand follows two policemen through a series of these very nights, as they combat the monsters that roam the streets while battling the more dangerous demons within. Playwright and actor Adhir Bhat, who has completed a decade in theatre, has worked on over 50 plays so far — his recent work includes the adaptation of Twinkle Khanna’s short story, Salaam Noni Appa, directed by Lillete Dubey. “However, I stopped counting after my 35th play. We keep staging them all the time,” says the 37-year-old, seated in the foyer of Juhu’s Prithvi Theatre. An hour before Akarsh Khurana directed Kaand — the story revolves around the arduous lives of two Delhi police officers on night duty — Bhat says the play is a departure from his previous work. His plays usually provide a humorous take on life. What’s consistent is that the language is contemporary and the characters, believable. “The voice is something that the youth will identify with. We want people of the younger generation to come to theatre and not make them feel alienated because the perception is that theatre is only what’s written in classics,” he says.

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Play 4 : Kala Yug

KALA YUG begins with a mother-daughter duo (Rama- Michlis) standing in a long queue at a hospital.

But when Rama learns that Michlis' doctor has been transferred, she reluctantly agrees to assign her. daughter's case to another doctor.

We later learn they are inside the psychiatric ward. Rama

has been taking Michlis here ever since she was a little

child. Why? Because, we are told, she behaves strangely and is not normal. But it seems no one is willing to look deep inside Michlis' nonnormative psyche.

In fact, the new doctor tells the mother that only staying

at a psychiatric ward for a year can cure her daughter.

Amidst all this, Michlis' only source of comfort is a Brahma Rakshas, who resides deep inside her neighborhood sewer. The Brahma Rakshas has been part of the dark underworld for eons.

In fact, the deep sewer is a metaphor for the netherworld, where the Brahma Rakshas is cursed to stay. Day and night, he attempts to clean himself from the impurities surrounding him but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood sewage turns into an escape for Michlis, who learns deep truths about life

from this Vedic demon.

Inspired by Gajanan Muktibodh's poem, Brahma Rakshas,

KALA YUG takes us back to the Atharva Veda and

explores the question of madness in human civilization.

Created by Delhi-based Mrit Pathshaala theatre group, the play is an important inquiry into madness, and the rush to institutionalise it. As Focault says,"madness begins where access to the truth is clouded."

Michlis looks up to the Brahma Rakshas as a mentor. He teaches her universal truths, but she wants to know more. The Brahma Rakshas senses an opportunity. Cursed to never have any real disciple, he manipulates Michlis into undoing it by making her choose between her mother and him.

This Thespo offering is a fine look at the different talents

that the team has been able to show.

From writing to directing, to set design, to lighting, to acting. However, the play falters in delivering a crisp performance. The dialogues, although deep, well-written and philosophical, almost sound like a treatise. There's no attempt to explain the meaning of those lines in easier words/actions.

The actors of the play are nicely settled into their roles. It's a delight to see them perform.

All in all, KALA YUG is an intelligent exploration into deeper questions of spirituality, and a rather rare performance piece to explore the Atharva Veda. If it is simplified just a little, it can be profoundly meaningful to the regular theatre-goer.

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Play 3 : Sakharam Binder

Vijay Tendulkar wrote the play SAKHARAM BINDER, nearly forty years ago and jolted the prudery of Indian society. Its open avowal of private truths about morality, sex and violence are still as true as the day the play was written. Sakharam Binder is a Brahmin who hates his upbringing and exists in a society which he loathes. But, he has no qualms about benefiting from its unfairness. He brings to his hovel, women who have been "discarded by their husbands" and gives them "a roof over their heads, two saris a year and food in their belly."

Vijay Tendulkar wrote the play SAKHARAM BINDER, nearly forty years ago and jolted the prudery of Indian society. Its open avowal of private truths about morality, sex and violence are still as true as the day the play was written. Sakharam Binder is a Brahmin who hates his upbringing and exists in a society which he loathes. But, he has no qualms about benefiting from its unfairness. He brings to his hovel, women who have been "discarded by their husbands" and gives them "a roof over their heads, two saris a year and food in their belly."

In return, they have to perform all the "wifely duties", including sharing their bodies. He is unapologetic about his sexual appetites and is uncontrollably violent during his rages, when he gives the women "what they deserve". Sadly, in a world cruel to women, he finds women who are desperate enough to agree to his terms. But in his provocative way, Sakharam questions the hypocrisy of the "bond" of marriage. Certain truths of intimate relations are never obvious to outsiders. Unwittingly, we realize what women must undergo in their marital home beneath the facade of respectability. Subjected to demands on their lives, bodies and minds, there is stoic acceptance of their fate. Sakharam on the contrary believes that he is magnanimous when he gives the women in his life permission to leave, whenever they wish. Fidelity for him means that he brings home a successor, only when the earlier one has left. Tendulkar's play is about this self-proclaimed hedonistic man and of the drama that sets in when he brings first Laxmi and later Champa into his home.

We see two women - the gently bred Brahmin female Laxmi, who is a trembling leaf of gratitude and compliance and begins to worship Sakharam like a wife would. Champa, on the other hand, is a brazen whisper of feministic change in the male-dominated household. Her lower-class background makes her frank in her speech, open about her physicality and candid about her choices. Her sensuality helps her wrap Sakharam around her little finger. But, she has been tortured sexually and

thus needs to be in an alcoholic haze in order to endure Sakharam's sexual demands. When Laxmi returns to his house, Sakharam's world unravels. Survival instinct and sexual violence create a situation which turns the aggressive Sakharam and the timid Laxmi into an antithesis of what they are. Tendulkar thus shows that morality is a luxury and that struggle for survival is the truth of the real world. Given the 'right' circumstances, all humans can turn

aggressive.

Written originally in Marathi, the English adaptation needed good translation and strong performances as is demanded by the characters. Sadly, for me, this production did not live up to my expectations. It lacked the flow necessary to hook an audience. The subtle menace, dialogue delivery and stage presence expected of Sakharam was simply missing in Dr. Rajesh Nahar's performance. The overly trembling speech of Shrabani Mukherjee playing Laxmi, was mechanical. It did not convey the requisite fear and apprehension. The lack of clarity in the speech of both these characters made one strain to hear the words.

Pulki Joshi who played the sultry Champa was better, although a more mature looking actress would have had a more forceful impact. Pulki's constant fiddling with her sari pallu exposed her unfamiliarity with the garment and did not gel with Champa's bold attitude. Neither was she at ease when she was supposed to be alone with Sakharam.

Sanjeev Srikar as Sakharam's friend Dawood and Rishikar Wadhwani as Fauzdar Shinde (Champa's husband) formed the supporting cast. Certain faux' pas such as repeatedly picking up an allegedly hot vessel of tea with the hand, or Laxmi entering the home and kitchen with slippers on, should have been avoided at all costs. Visible stagehands during change of scene, the production crew's brightly lit computer screen in the pit are presumably hiccups of a first performance.

Sakharam's inept playing of the drum was jarring. Most words from the original (particularly the swear words and rustic language) lost their impact in translation, but retaining some Marathi words with the correct pronunciation was a nice touch. The young director Yogesh Pagare has tried to recreate the complexity of Vijay Tendulkar's most controversial play, but has a very long way to go.

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Play 2 : Untitled 1

Annie Zaidi’s play Untitled – 1 presents a fight for something barebones and basic, in a dystopian world that is disturbingly similar to today’s reality. The play itself is barely dramatic, and begins by using casual conversations and passing comments to slowly reveal a suffocating surveillance state. Every citizen in Zaidi’s world knows that they are being watched: their social engagements mapped and calculated, online interactions timed, solitary moments clocked with precision. All by a State that expects you to be fine with it: after all, they do inform you of what they’re doing.

For Zaidi, the world she paints isn’t a future possibility. “It’s no longer a dystopian future, but the reality,” she says, pointing out the slew of incidents and reports from around the world of online behaviour being mapped, Facebook and Instagram posts being used to make arrests.

The premise of Zaidi’s play is purely surveillance. Her protagonists want privacy for privacy’s sake. No more, no less. So, she doesn’t use any political incident or moral high ground to drive home her point: in her plot, nothing earth-shattering is at stake. Yet, it seems monumental enough, as she makes her audience realise how precious it is, the freedom to just sit, stroll, think, or write by oneself. How refreshing it is, to have a few moments unshared by other people.

The key to this realisation lies with her characters, both the good and the bad. Her protagonist, Vishwas, a writer, is essentially just that. “The writer is the writer,” says Zaidi, “A part of him is me; other parts are a reflection of all writers. He is of the breed that has become popular accidentally. He doesn’t write to please his audience. He is the stereotype of what I think a good writer should be.”

The fact that Vishwas’ work serves only itself is critical. He wants to explore the concept of duty, how it plays upon morality. He wants to play with a number of important yet vague questions, and he wants to do it by himself. This urge is what makes resistance take shape within the play. As Zaidi points out, “Creativity and truth-telling require privacy before they can be made public.”

On the other hand is Vishwas’ wife Dina, who plays a bigger role than that of just lending support to the protagonists’ story and struggle. “Dina is an ordinary citizen, who doesn’t belong to the intellectual, artistic circles. She has her own circles, whom she wants to protect, and she cannot be pushed beyond a point,” says Zaidi, adding that Dina represents the people who are often caught in the crossfire between the intellectuals and the “larger forces”.

Which brings us to another interesting point: that of the antagonist. The bad guy in this play is the State, but Zaidi stresses, “It could be anyone. It could be society, peer groups, teachers...” When she says “larger forces”, she means anyone with enough clout to affect your way of life.

In Untitled – 1 , the antagonist is surprisingly approachable. This was a deliberate move by the writer. She describes her antagonist as “the benign face of the State. He knows you, he reads what you write [and not just because it’s his job]. But he won’t protect your freedom to write it.”

In the end it all comes down to freedom. The freedom to be by yourself, in public, at home, online. For Zaidi, this is the foundation stone for bigger, equally important issues. “You can’t have one form of freedom and not another. You can’t say ‘the streets are safe, but not for women’. Either they’re safe, or they’re not.”

Similarly, she says, the artistic freedom at the crux of her play doesn’t exist in a vacuum. “If you can’t write freely, you can’t teach freely,” she points out, “If the artist is not free the doctor is not free either.”

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Play 1 : Still and still moving

The bulk of the Writer's Bloc plays have featured talent from Mumbai, the self-styled theatre capital of the country. Even so, a group from Delhi, The Tadpole Repertory, has quietly mounted a production of rare beauty, STILL AND STILL MOVING-written and directed by Neel Chaudhuri. Two men, Adil and Partho, are at the heart of this stolid but still affecting love story, which is marked by sensitively drawn portraits and a giddy sense of the conjoined cities that the men inhabit (Delhi and Gurgaon), and on which turf they negotiate their relationship. There is the figurative (and literal) distance that Adil and Partho have to travel before they can be with each other (or not), and also a generational chasm to overcome-the two men are more than two decades apart in age. Their tale plays out like a paean to love and longing, and loneliness, perhaps, but never to that numbing sense of loss that may have pervaded gay lives even just half a generation ago.

Gandharv Dewan plays the restless younger man, Adil, who belongs to the generation that has caught a new wave in these post-377 times, and moved from the seclusion of the closet to the open boulevards where a more brazen kind of expression isn't completely out of line, even if, for Adil, that only involves taking part in a pride parade, or writing an open letter 'coming out' to his deceased father. Oroon Das is Partho, the more circumspect older man, who doesn't quite let himself savor everything that comes his way in terms of love and companionship, and appears to bear the baggage carried by his generation, hiding away from the world in his Gurgaon home, lost in his literary endeavours, content in carrying out his love affair with a man clandestinely. Adil may seek out the semblance of a father-figure in Partho, but both men are clear that they are lovers first, and Mr Chaudhuri allows the relationship to develop with a forthrightness rarely seen on stage. Even behind a tall sheer curtain, the love-making is intimate and unabashed and sometimes almost guileless, as in the scene where Mr Das sends up Meena Kumari (always the self-sacrificing paragon) in Pakeezah, while pinning Mr Dewan down on the bed.

Partho had once been married to a woman because it was something his conditioning had deemed correct at that time. By introducing the character of his teenage son, the play moves into somewhat edgier territory. It's a measure of Mr Das' proficiency as an actor, that the eroticism that informs Partho's intimacy with Adil, doesn't quite spill over into the space he shares with his teenage son. Even with his lover, Partho is never quite the 'dirty old man'- he is tender and caring, needy but never exploitative, carnal but romantic. With his son, he's as concerned and protective, but the longing gaze is now a kind of benign adoration. It's a seamless transition and Mr Das captures the subtle shift very well, and refuses to give off that incriminating 'vibe' that some people, eager to demonise gay men, would half-expect in this kind of situation

Ultimately it is all pulled together by the two consummate central performances. For Mr Dewan, his character represents a more straightforward rites of passage, and he nails the subtle changes in Adil's personality with time. As he spends time with Partho, he undergoes a refinement of sorts, and where there was once a gawky gum-chewing teenager, there is now a self-assured man of the world. In turn Partho learns to be unguarded, and more untidy. His writing suffers (or maybe benefits) from a lack of form that makes his words seem less structured, more amorphous. When he first encounters Adil in a book-launch, and drops him to his train, refusing to board it himself, the play perhaps hints that this man's life would be a series of missed journeys. Fortunately, as it pans out, Partho has undertaken an expedition after all. He allows himself a chance to love someone. Mr Das plays his character with a stoic composure but he also makes poignantly real those moments where Partho seems to be almost coming apart because of the crushing love he feels for Adil. The denouement of this play is entirely its own, and not dictated by the shadow of oppression that gay men live under. In releasing its characters from the cloistered confines that would have once been their only fate, this play represents a remarkable achievement.

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Gustakhiyan

Theatre is a collaborative art form which combines words, voice, movement and visual elements to express meaning. The field of theatre encompasses not only live improvised and scripted work, but also dramatic forms such as film, television and other electronic media.

A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright.

These plays connect us to modern world theatre. Covering different issues varying from LGBTQ relationship to surveillance, real life problems to problems we might face in future. It creates awareness about the reality by connecting to one's life.

Theatre play the oldest form of storytelling in India. it bridges the gap between the story teller and audience. all of these plays are written by famous writers who will help us to see life from different perspective.