Directed by Mohit Takalkar and translated by Deborah Smith, the play The Colour of Loss is set to première digitally on October 2 with Front & Centre, Paytm Insider’s theatre initiative. The story depicts a complex mixture of pain, loss, despair, compassion, love, empathy, and forgiveness.
The Colour of Loss highlights what it means to remember someone who is no more. The play, adapted from Booker prize-winner Han Kang’s book The While Book, , is a story of finding beauty in loss. The author reminisces with her sister through the lens of all things white — breast milk, swaddling bands, the baby’s rice cake-coloured skin, white dog, and sugar cubes.
Mohit Takalkar
The play is performed by Mrinmayee Godbole, Ipshita, Manasi Bhawalkar, and Dipti Mahadev as a part of the contemporary theatre group - Aasakta. The Colour of Loss is shot at THE BOX brought together by Ashish Mehta (production design), Saurabh Bhalerao (music), Vikrant Thakar (lighting design), Rashmi Rode (makeup), Hrishikesh Pujari and Suyog Deshpande (assistant direction), Ganesh Phuke (sound recordist), Nachiket Pendase (camera), and team TCOL.
Over the past 17 years, Aasakta has had around 800 performances of more than 30 different plays in Marathi, Hindi and English. Its plays have been selected and performed at National School of Drama’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav and TIE’s Jashne Bachpan, Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre, Satellite Theatre Festivals, Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, Prithvi Theatre Festival, Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, International Theatre Festival of Kerala.
Director Mohit was initially reluctant to explore the idea of theatre in digital times. He says, “The urgency to do ‘something’ in the theatre had been building in lockdown. I was reluctant but a month-and-a-half back, I wondered, ‘What’s the harm?’, since theatre for us has always been about exploring possibilities on stage.”
( The Colour of Loss will be staged digitally on October 2; For tickets https://insider.in/the-colour-of-loss-oct2-2020/event)
