Just 15 viewers in the audience. The venue will be Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan School at Thali, Kozhikode; every room of it, including the toilets. At the end of it, the lines between performers and audience become non-existent.
“An imitation of Death” , a unique play that redefines the definition of performance, will be staged at the Zamorin’s School on December 30 and 31, 2021 and January 1, 2022 amidst the smallest possible audience a play could have. Emil Madhavi, the director, feels that it will be a success theatrically and financially with the quite different way it has been designed and planned.
Mr. Madhavi had staged “An imitation of death” in Hyderabad, Telangana, in 2017 for the first time. At the time, it was a multilingual one, with actors from Sri Lanka and USA being part of it. It was later staged in Delhi and then at Government Higher Secondary School, Kokkallur, Kozhikode.
"The text is not important here. It is our experiences and memories that come into play here", Mr. Madhavi said.
"An imitation of Death’ will be an intimate theatre experience in which the audience will be forced to play a part. It will have to follow the performers as they move from one place to another inside the school and at one point will be part of the performance themselves", he said.
The play is being staged under the banner of Mavericks Creative Collective, Kokkallur. The shows have been timed at 6.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. on the three days and interested persons can contact 9746050032 or 9061517000 to book their seats.
