It’s a tale we’re all familiar with: the story of a boy Ganesha, who loses his head and is given an elephant’s in its place. What we haven’t considered is the angst that the young boy might have experienced. And that’s the side of the story that Yuki Ellias brings to stage in her year-old production, Elephant in the Room .
The Mumbai-based theatre actor-director, Yuki Ellias, debuted this solo performance (written by Sneh Sapru) at The Park’s New Festival 2016 in Chennai. Since then, she says that they’ve had a “spectacular journey”. “We got picked up by the Hyderabad Children’s Festival, which was surprising, since we did not think the play could reach out to kids. But we performed to almost 900 schoolchildren and it was exhilarating, as they responded to the characters and the story itself,” she adds.
It took them everywhere from a yoga studio to a private home to the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META), where they were nominated for seven awards and won three — Best Actor Female, Best Costume Design (Sumaiya Merchant) and Best Lighting Design (Asmit Pathare). The highlight of the year has been the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Teamwork Arts.
“We performed 23 shows; the international audience didn’t know about the myth, but related to the universal themes of family conflict, migration, immigration and the refugee crisis, although it was an Indian narrative.” This is where the play subtly evolved, and Ellias says, “I learned to enjoy my characters even more, find nuances that I can play.”
Apart from the eight characters the play debuted with, there’s now a guest appearance by a Siberian crane (who speaks from the perspective of a Russian tourist who wants to spend winter in India). “But because of our ecological conditions, it’s becoming harder for it to visit; there’s a lot of black humour in that one. The show starts to take on another layer of meaning as we respond every day to what is happening to us socially, politically and fundamentally.”
For her first performance in Chennai since the debut, she will be playing to a roomful of women from FICCI Flo, and Ellias says she could not get a better audience. “This role came out of a need to challenge myself as a woman actor, and pushing that boundary, knowing that a woman can play any role — Ganesha, a boy, an animal. Gender doesn’t matter in portraying the rasa of a character.”
The core team that created Elephant... has begun conceptualising for the next production, she says. “It’s too early to reveal much, but it’s going to be a bigger cast, set in a village in India. It requires a lot of research, which we are just getting started on. Maybe in a year’s time, we will be closer to having a play on stage as our next big adventure and experiment.”
Elephant in the Room will be staged on October 26 at 7.30 pm at Crowne Plaza. Ages 10+ only; dinner will follow. Call 9841713007/9176699989/8148445427 for donor passes.
