Amid the deluge of plays being performed every other day in the city, comes two new productions: Russian playwright Valentin Krasnogorov’s Let’s Have Sex, presented by Tanariri Theatres, and three original plays from the students of Ratan Thakore Grant’s acting studio, Misf!t.
The cast of Let’s Have Sex come across as enthusiastic theatre lovers, who have found time out of their busy schedules as working professionals to rehearse. Vijay S, the director of the play, says they have invested four months to put the production together.
While the title is suitably provocative, Let’s Have Sex is a slice of absurd theatre, which addresses the reality of our existence that we often don’t confront.
“Though the play is about sex from start to finish, sex in the play is representative of the human predicament,” says Vijay.
“What is the meaning of life? What is the basis of our existence? These are questions that pervade the play, but there are no definite conclusions or easy answers to them. We took an instant liking to the script.”
The five-character play has an element of mystery to it. “The playwright hasn’t given the characters any names. He has only identified them as husband or wife. Every character represents everyone, making it easily relatable,” adds Vijay.
The play has quite a bit of humour in it. Vijay says that the play is a suspense-filled drama, making it worth a watch. “It has been divided into two sequences. The first part is quite different from the second,” says Vijay.
Pranav Patadiya and Neeraja MR founded Tanariri Theatres last year. Their first play Natak Shuru was staged at Ranga Shankara and Alliance Francaise. The theatre group’s focus is to stage Hindi and English plays. Explaining the significance of the name of the group, Tanariri, Pranav says: “There are many legends associated with it. This is one of the legends. In Akbar’s time there were two sisters Tana and Riri who were the only ones who knew how to sing Malhar raga. Tansen, Akbar’s court singer, was asked to sing Deepak Raga, but as this Raga creates discomfort in the body, he had to go in search of Malhar singers so that it can ease the discomfort. He then encountered Tana and Riri.” The name is relevant to our lives, adds Neeraja. “It is like how art, like rain, can soothe us.”
Let’s Have Sex will be staged at Alliance Francaise on August 23 and 24, both days will have two shows at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm. The cast includes Anubhuti Sood, Garima Tiwari, Pranav Patadiya, Sneha Kumari and Vishal Shah. Tickets are available at indianstage.in, bookmsyhow.com and at the venue. Call 8095547856. Shorts stuffMisf!t, short for My interest is firmly in theatre, presents a collection of short plays titled Strangers. The Storm has been written by Anoop Mathew, The Falling Rose by Lyria Kurian and What/No…Really? by Bijon Brahma. Abhishek Purkayastha, one of the co-ordinators, says: “This is an attempt to encourage in-house playwrights. Our plays at Misfit touch upon social issues. The three plays are based on important issues that we often neglect, such as the state of women in our society, our attitude towards our children, if they tell us their problems, do we address it? And about the judiciary. We always talk about the system being wrong, but does the fault lie with the system or us?”
The plays have been written in a combination of different languages. “They are not just in English. There is Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Tamil as well. This keeps the regional flavour in our plays alive,” says Abhishek.
Strangers will be performed on August 23 and August 24 at 7.30 pm at Paradigm Shift, number 8, third floor, 80 feet road, 4 Block, Koramangala. Tickets are priced at Rs. 199 and are available at indianstage.in. Call 9740236898.