BENGALURU: Today, our reliance and dependence on being connected to the internet is common but the extent of it is quite terrifying to Debosmita Dam. “We have apps for everything – food, shopping, dating, meditation, medical assistance, general entertainment and apps that remind you to drink water. There is a market for everything. And it reflects a larger change in our lifestyle than being just about teenagers SnapChatting all the time,” she says.
Debosmita will be presenting a staged reading of Norway Today, written by contemporary German playwright Igor Bauersima that follows two young people who connect on the internet and decide to meet, because they have one thing in common – an urge to commit suicide. Since the play talks about the saturation we have reached with regard to technology and access to the internet, the team spent some time observing patterns and changes that have emerged over the last few years in social media, and the general role of the internet in our everyday lives. The play is about the duo who talk about their shared feeling of disconnect with people and world around them, and how growing up doesn’t seem exciting anymore because through the internet, they feel like they’ve seen it all. “More than it being a play about suicide, it explores one possible reaction, one possible consequence, of the interconnectedness of life and technology.
They are disillusioned majorly because their interactions with the world have been mediated by technology. While it has shown them the many opportunities and possibilities in life, they haven’t really experienced much of it, and that is the effect ultimately that a bombardment of information has on our lives. I chose this script because it felt extremely relevant to out current times,” she says.
This show is the fourth and last in a series of dramatised readings called German Spotlight, which is a joint project of Sandbox Collective and Goethe-Institut /Max Mueller Bhavan. This is also the first reading that Debosmita has directed. “So it gave me the opportunity to explore something new,” she says.
Staged/dramatised readings are an alternate form of plays, she says and hence, they aren’t so different from theatre. “It has both its pros and cons when compared to a full-length production of the same play/script. One of the biggest pros is that it eliminates an actor’s worst nightmare on stage, which is forgetting lines, because you always have the text in front of you, she says, adding that it is also a great way to engage with the storytelling aspect of theatre, as in this form, the focus is always the text, and letting the story come out naturally. On the other hand, in a full length production, there are many other elements such as set, lights and sound. “It is also a very interesting way to engage with scripts that are written in other parts of the world, as a form of cultural exchange,” she adds.
Staged reading
Where: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan
When: August 4, 7 pm
Entry to the event is free.