Playtonik Productions is staging Bill Corbett and Kira Obolensky’s Hate Mail . The Bengaluru-based theatre group was founded in 2011 by Tulika Majumdar, Roli Arun and Deeban Chakravarthy. It has staged several plays in the city including Rumors, California Suite, The Clean House and Funny Money .
Talking about the decision to stage Hate Mail, director Deeban says, “It is a comedy in epistolary format, which I love. When we were creating The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl a couple of years ago, we came across this script. It was a fast-paced, contemporary, witty war of words between two characters Dahlia and Preston set in the 1990s spanning over few years.
“The flow of the script needed a high voltage performance. The characters are diverse. How they cross each other's path is interesting. The indifference and hate that starts the conversation and then transforms into a ping-pong of emotions was very catchy. This also seemed like a play, which was light from a production perspective as opposed to the other plays that Playtonik has been creating which were cast and set heavy.” Commenting on the nostalgia associated with communication through letters, postcards and telegrams, Deeban said, “Writing stuff for someone has a sense of personal touch, charm and involvement. The idea of carrying out a conversation without having a traditional 'dialogue' with each other was fascinating. As a director, this kind of script gave me the creative freedom to interpret and present the play in different ways. I could go minimal or very elaborate. Also I was influenced by classic epistolary plays such as Tumhari Amrita, Love Letters and Dear Liar .”
There have been seven shows of the play till now and Deeban is sure Bengalureans will “Relate to the cosmopolitan madness of the story; the witty repartee and the roller-coaster pace of Dahlia and Preston's relationship.”
Hate Mail will be staged on April 25 and 26 at 7.30 pm at Ranga Shankara. Tickets are available on bookmyshow.
