Akvarious Productions from Mumbai has presented many plays in the city. Director and writer, Akarsh Khurana, founder of Akvarious, says Bengaluru comes a close second to Mumbai when it comes to staging plays. "The city has an informed and a relatively younger audience," he says.
This time short plays in a production titled Bayan , which in Turkish means women and in Hindi, to make a statement or express, will be performed at two intimate venues. True to its title, the plays focus on women and what they want to express. There are plays like Anything For You , in which two women discover a new dimension to their friendship, I Can Tell Your Handbag is Fake about superficiality and fashion consciousness, and Santa's Little Call Girls , about four women in a call centre.
These have been directed by Akarsh. "I curated the pieces. We opened them for the Fringe Festival we were doing. After four or five shows, we found a set that worked well," he explains. Some of the writers are well known. "There is a piece titled Tale of Two Typewriters , written by Karishma Attari, who is from a journalism background and has written a novel. My wife knows her and requested her to write a play. She agreed and this is the first time she has written for stage. Then there is Santa's Little Call Girls , written by Apoorva Kale, a well-known playwright, that has been performed for close to six years. And then I have written some pieces. For the Fringe Festival I had read many short stories, but a lot of them lacked an Indian context."
Each piece is set in an Indian space, which include the Delhi metro, a Mumbai call centre, a general urban cafe and '90s Bombay. The plays are impactful for their no-holds-barred approach to telling women's stories. "There is one performance that women are foul-mouthed and are not ashamed of it."
Bayan will be staged on November 23 at The Humming Tree, Indiranagar, and on November 24 at Shoonya, Lal Bagh Road.Both shows are at 8.30 p.m. Tickets available on www.insider.in
