Ticket to the hills

Experimenting with a non-linear narrative, Madras Players brings Bond’s stories to the stage

“There is a surprise in every scene,” says Dushyanth Gunashekar, founder of Crea-Shakthi, about his latest production, Bonding With Ruskin . The director shares that he has not used a linear narrative; instead, he has looked to Where’s Waldo , a popular children’s puzzle book. “The huge landscapes and people streaming in and out served as a great inspiration,” he says.

The play attempts to weave together a variety of musical and storytelling techniques, with the text providing a different yet honest perspective of Ruskin Bond’s best stories. Inspired mainly from two stories (which Gunashekar does not want to divulge), he says, “It is a big production with a cast of 23, and a live music ensemble.” But why Bond? “We have grown up listening to his stories, and they have been relevant for generations. Bond finds magic in the mundane. And even though he is Welsh, he is a very Indian writer,” he explains.

On track

The production promises to take the audience on a journey. Like how the characters in Bond’s stories travel by train — at each stop, a different tale awaits. It also tries to capture a spectrum of different shades of the writer’s works — from his love for the quiet hills of Deoli and the haunted mansions in Dehra, to the innocent tales of unrequited love and terrible stories of violence in marriage. “The train and mountains have been recurring images in his works. That’s the metaphor I am using. Bond engaged with themes like unrequited love, the macabre, and loss,” shares Gunashekar, adding that humour and reflection are connecting threads in all the narratives.

Fresh take

“The storytelling is plain and simple, and the play works with the concepts of space and time. However, we are breaking away from conventional narration and using a variety of techniques such as ballad, opera and physical theatre,” says Gunashekar, whose last directorial venture was

Snapshots of a Fervid Sunrise . Sets have been kept minimal, too.

Bonding with Ruskin , presented by Madras Players, will be staged at The Museum Theatre on June 23, 24 and 25, at 7.15 pm. Tickets are available at: eventjini.com/bondingwithruskin and in.bookmyshow.com