As times have changed, technology has triumphed. It’s made us look at the world through cameras, engage with our friends through WhatsApp and look for love through Tinder. Technology, for better or worse, has changed the world around us.
Perch’s recent production, Monkey and the Mobile , uses this theme to look at the impact of technology on our lives — some real, some imagined. “We started out with nothing — no script, no reference point. Conversation soon turned to the omnipresent mobile phone, and soon, story ideas were improvised from there,” says director Rajiv Krishnan.
Through a collection of stories — of people who are comfortable with each other in the digital world and then meet in the real one, about the life cycle of an emoji, of animals with identity crisis and more — that are woven together, the play explores larger themes of identity, control and memory. “Every story is somehow connected to technology and explores aspects of how it affects us.”
Rajiv adds that technology has affected this play too: “Mobile phones enable us to do a lot of things — we decided to explore projections with this play. So, in some stories, what’s happening on stage is filmed live using a mobile phone and projected on a screen for the audience to see.” Despite using technology as a tool of storytelling, the play has a simple and engaging narrative. “Each story is different and there is something in it for everybody. It may make you laugh, think and maybe even cry.”
The multilingual play, presented by Anandsami, Anitha Santhanam, Darshana Rajendran, Paul Mathew, Rency Philip and others, premiered in Chennai in October 2015. Since then, it has also been staged at Adishakti, Puducherry and Ranga Shankara, Bangalore. “Based on audience response and our observations, we have reworked it and what is going to be staged this weekend is very different from the one we premiered. It is still evolving.”
Monkey and the Mobile will be staged on June 18 and 19 (3 p.m. and 7 p.m.) at Alliance Française. It is a 90-minute multilingual play. Entry is free.
