BEYOND SERENDIPITY

Adrak 

The plot revolves around few phonic conversations and it breathes on the aliveness and immediacy of it just like any normal phone conversation. Meanwhile, the essence lingers around like a flash of introspection one gets soon after ending that very same conversation. This is the story of 3 characters Nischay, Vikrant and Anokhi. All of them, being hopeless of their present, try and dig out the nostalgia of their shared past.

Directed by Niketan Sharma, Performed by Niketan Sharma, Srishti Shrivastava, Dheer Hira, Lighting by Trinetra Tiwari, Sound design by Kartavya Anthwal Sharma and Ritesh Malaney, Sound(operation) by Ritesh Malaney, Co-written by Abhisek Kumar.

Images courtesy Douglas Gracias

Criminal Tribes Act

A theatre piece that examines the inherent conflicts between the speaker and his subject, the spoken and the unspoken, and the inescapability of the ‘us’, ‘them’ and ‘the other’ social order. Using the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, a legislation brought during the British rule as a starting point, the piece explores the human consequences of India’s inherited modes of social exclusion.

Written by Anirudh Nair, Chandra Ninasam and Sankar Venkateswaran, Performed by Chandra Ninasam and Anirudh Nair, Directed by Sankar Venkateswaran.

Images courtesy Douglas Gracias

Jhalkari

The play is based on the real-life historical figure, who was a Dalit soldier in the army of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi. She was an adept battle strategist and warrior, with an all-woman army at her disposal. Witness a story about this look-alike of her queen, who often stood in for the latter in battle. She met her end at the hands of British troops, when she was just 27 years old. 

Directed by Neha Singh, Performed by Punarvasu (Raja Gangadhar Rao), Dipika Pandey (Rani Laxmi Bai), Kritika Pandey (Jhalkari), Annapurna Soni (Younger Jhalkari), Nishant Kumar (Puran), Madhur Khandelwal (British Officer), Stage managed by Priyanshi Bahadur, Production managed by Priyanshi Bahadur,  Musicians Madhur Khandelwal/ Punarvasu , Lights by Vishal Jarwal, Playwright by Punarvasu, Music by Bundelkhandi folk songs & Punarvasu, Costume designer Sonika Riar.

Images courtesy Douglas Gracias

No Place Like There

Houdini, the escapologist, enacted that which is essential to many myths: flight from something that will be returned to. The wish to escape is a form of recognition, and through it, No Place Like There is a discovery integral to our sense of ourselves, and the ways in which we question who we are. 

Conceptualised, Directed, and Performed by Sheeba Chadha, Video by Ruchi Bakshi, Lights by Bharavi, Production and Sound by Sachin Kamani.

Images courtesy Douglas Gracias

‘Sonnets c. 2018’

A devised, bilingual, site-specific performance, using Shakespeare’s sonnets as a starting point. The play is an attempt to reclaim the sonnets and to reinvent them, to account not just for contemporary sensibilities and notions of sexuality and gender but also to place them firmly in the here and now, of the grizzly urban life of bustling metropolises. The sonnets were written about four hundred and twenty years ago. The play is an attempt to reclaim the sonnets and to reinvent them, to account not just for contemporary sensibilities and notions of sexuality and gender but also to place them firmly in the here and now, of the grizzly urban life we live in bustling metropolises.

Directed by Anirudh Nair, Devised by The Ensemble, Concept & Design by Anirudh Nair with Jaya Sharma & Amba-Suhasini K Jhala , Assistant Director Jaya Sharma, Costume Design by Megha Khanna, Lighting Design by Anuj Chopra, Sound Design by Sahil Vasudeva, Scenography & Publicity Design by Chandni Arora, Production Assistant Koyel Sahoo,Translation by Tanzil Rahman, Performed by Amba-Suhasini K Jhala, Dhwani Vij, Manishikha Baul, Mohit Mukherjee, Rahul Tewari.

Images courtesy Lumiere Project