‘A Zoom Call Re:Birds’ is theatre group Indian Ensemble’s new experiment

The show from the Bengaluru theatre group combines theatrical and old-school radio programming elements

Poster for the show

What if your radio starts interacting with you?

Theatre group Indian Ensemble's new project is based on this interesting idea. It will not be a play. It will be, as the executive director of the group Shubham Roy Choudhury calls it, 'a performative audio-visual experience'. The show will be on Zoom, a platform that has become synonymous with the pandemic.

A Zoom Call Re:Birds , which premieres on March 19, will be about, as the title suggests, birds. Saudamini Kalra, one of the creators, got the idea when she was staring at birds from her terrace. They were always there but she hardly noticed them until the pandemic.

"There are two things we'd like to address," says Shubham, "One is to be more aware of our surroundings in our city lives, where we don't really pay attention to what happens around us. Then, there is the bird idea. It is sort of a metaphor for the nature that surrounds us. And we don't really care about it."

The show combines theatrical and old-school radio programming elements. "Once you log in, it will feel like you are in the middle of an old radio broadcast. There will be news read out to you, there will be game shows in which you can participate and other things," Shubham explains.

The show also has pre-recorded interviews with A Karuppuraja, a young man from the Pothakudi village in Tamil Nadu, who found himself at the centre of a grassroots movement triggered by a mysterious bird.

The number of audience allowed per show is 10.

For tickets and more information, visit the Insider event page for the event.