From the outside it looks like perfect picture of a rich life, but since when has any life been perfect? Zoom in and you'll see an empty, mundane life that doesn't go beyond wine and cheese. Darkly humorous, Collaborators is a look at vapid lives that often occupy the living rooms of privileged houses — dry, classist and drowning deep in the seas of luxury. Such emptiness, only money can offer. It reflects the modern Indian, torn between luxuries of his five-bedroom apartment in Mumbai that overlooks dozens of people yearning for one square meal a day. The play aims to look at the dilemma of holding your own when you're surrounded by social disparity and poverty. Which cloak would you rather wear — the cloak of apathy, sympathy or that of empathy? The choice isn't simple, because it probably is not a choice at all.
Explaining a ‘routine', the story weaves itself from living room conversations and past narratives. The routine brings to light those many conversations — of feeding a baby, or the crashing of stock markets, mergers and acquisitions. It's all talk, the talk that blinds you to the woes of the world. Set to an evening of Bridge — the unfriendly game as Kranti (Nitin Bhajan) puts it. An air of disquiet engulfs the sets of the play, because the lives in it are vain and empty. The theme of the play and the set owes much to postmodernism, when privy to what it being shown on stage, it is fun to apply a ‘Derridean' approach and indulge in textual analysis and deconstruction of the narrative. The play leaves scope for interpretation, assumption and gives ample space and time to get to the underpinnings of the dialogues. The narrative moves from the past and present effortlessly.
The cast and crew did an exquisite job, be it the minimalist set or heartfelt dialogues. Rasika Agashe as the wife displayed extraordinary talent, the diction alone fell short. Rajat Kaul and Ankita Bhargava did well too. Nitin Bhajan however shone with his character — pensive and stark. He is the reflection of that inconsistent philosophy of life and reference-less political identity that we all suffer from.
The play was staged by Shabdaakaar group from Mumbai and was presented at Lamakaan.
