They take theatre to the audience, unannounced

These artistes pop up in the middle of an audience, and perform

After years of performing on stage, Krishnan Balakrishnan and his friends had got tired with the idea of pre-planned settings.

They wanted to try their hand at something impromptu, a kind of popping up in the middle of an unsuspecting audience in an unexpected place. Vaguely a street play, but which is performed indoors too.

“Last month, when the Nizhalattam festival was going on at the Kanakakkunnu Palace, the organisers asked us if we can do some short play. We got the call in the afternoon and over the next few hours, I sat with Syam Raji and Kannan Nair to discuss an idea and by evening we were ready to surprise the crowd,” says Krishnan of the Artfaktory theatre group.

That evening, they walked into the middle of a crowd at the Kanakakkunnu lawns and started performing.

The short play was titled ‘Athey, ee coatum, pantum shirtum ittal.’

It all happened with minimal costumes, zero makeup and non-existent props. Over the past one month, they have performed at such small informal gatherings, most of the time arriving without a warning but managing to retain the crowd’s attention nonetheless.

“It is something we improvised from a short story and it does not have a proper script. The idea is based on how people respond differently according to the way a person is dressed, as is conveyed from the title. The intro scene changes from place to place, mostly a commentary on some recent issue,” he says.