Playwright-director Abhishek Iyengar, COO at WeMoveTheatre, dabbles in both English and Kannada theatre. He contends that every kind of story must be told. “There hasn’t been much contemporary writing in Kannada of an evolving Bangalore. So if we are to understand how the city has changed since 2000, there is a big gap.” It is in keeping with this idea that E=MC2 was written. The play revolves around the life of a software engineer in the city, and is a thriller. Abhishek says the play is relatable as it is current to our times. “The audience should relate to the play and feel that this is our story.”
Magadi Days , another popular play by Abhishek written in English, is a political satire, relevant to our times of social media. The story begins when Karnataka gets a new chief minister, a former IT employee, who wants to make government functions more transparent. He asks all the ministers to update their status on Facebook, Twitter and other social media portals. This leads to dissatisfaction among the bureaucrats, and thus leads to a series of events. “ Magadi Days has a strong script while E=MC2 works on performance,” explains Abhishek. Theatre, he stresses, is not just for intellectuals. “I want to reach out to audiences from industrial societies and every neighbourhood.”
Both these plays will be staged as part of the WeMoveTheatre Carnival at KEA Prabhat Rangamandira, Basaweshwarnagar. Magadi Days will be staged on February 27 and E=MC2 on February 28 at 7.30 p.m. Call 9886062324.
