An evening of reading, tempered with small performances from time to time — this is what city-based theatre company Masquerade has in store for audiences this Sunday. And, this time veteran playwright Mohan Narayanan’s renowned plays — will be on the table. Aptly titled The View from Within , this performative reading session will take thespians in and out of the fictional worlds that Narayanan has created over the years, all of which have been staged at different points in the city.
“This year, every play that we produce is being dedicated as a sign of thanksgiving to the senior theatre personalities in the city. We had also wanted to bring all his works together under one roof,” says S Krishna Kumar, artistic director at Masquerade.
The group had premiered Narayanan’s work, The Truth , in 2008 and is working on staging Flipsides , another one of the playwright’s works, by next year.
A moderated interaction with the playwright will follow the session that takes up a number of his plays.
Narayanan’s Aswaha was premiered in 2001 by The Madras Players, directed by Dipankar Mukherjee. Birds was directed by Anita Khanzadian-Jones for the Hollywood Interactive (Los Angeles), and later performed thrice in Chennai. Shortly to be premiered in 2019-20 is Flipsides — a play dealing with people and their doppelgängers in parallel universes.
“When people take to this sort of scientific temper, as Mohan does, they tend to start questioning tradition and its many aspects. But he asks questions like where does science end and religion start; where do beliefs end and enquiry starts. He stays within tradition and culture and yet thinks of the scientific side of everything,” KK says, adding that this is the aspect that is most appealing to many, in Narayanan’s writing.
The View From Within will be held on June 30 at Curioplay, Alwarpet at 5.15 pm. The evening is a non-ticketed event. Only 50 seats are available. Email masquerade.madras@gmail.com to reserve your seat.
