CHENNAI: Indian politics chronicled from Nehru to Modi in 50 minutes. It’s a tad overwhelming to imagine, yes? But that’s what city-based theatre group Stray Factory hopes to accomplish with the staging of their latest play The Abridged History of Modern Day India at the Hollywood Fringe Festival next month. It sounds like one heck of a feat to pull off, especially considering this will be for a foreign audience with very litte knowledge on the subject. And if you’re thinking of a large scale production with close to a 100 actors, elaborate costume changes and a Godzilla-sized budget, you are wrong. “We have two actors,” says the play’s producer Mathivanan Rajendran. And according to one of the actors Naren Weiss, who incidentally wrote the piece himself, it took all of two nights to script!
“I’ve been doing a lot of character studying of Indian leaders,” says Naren, who is currently doing Masters of Fine Arts in Film in Brooklyn. He goes on, “That’s where we got the idea to develop a play around Indian history, dating forward to the present day.” Acting with him is classmate Mohit Gautam, and between classes the two have taken it upon themselves to rehearse, plan ways to up their cast count by including members of the audience and touch down with the team sitting in Chennai via multiple Skype calls every day. “The whole piece will be timelined,” explains the 23-year-old. “This way, for people in the audience who are from other parts of the world like Europe, China or the US, there will be a reference point as to what happened in other parts of the world as our story is unfolding.”
Along the way, there will be references to desi pop culture, film icons and even the occasional sprinkling of Hinglish. “So beyond the political arc, it’s also the story about the evolution of culture and people,” Mathivanan jumps in. Is Rajinikanth in the play, we have to ask? “We wouldn’t be able to give the Superstar the respect he deserves by dedicating a portion of the play to him, he would need an entire dramatic production,” responds Naren with a smile. “But we do have Shah Rukh Khan and possibly a sexy Bollywood item number in the works...” And though the story traces political changes, with reference to India’s freedom struggle and is in part a serious staging on history unfolding for a world audience, the man behind the script emphasises, “The story will be laced with a generous touch of humour to keep our audience hooked.”
Promoted online with #india4dummies, The Abridged History of Modern Day India is clearly not intended to be as academic as it sounds. But we have to wonder out loud — how is an international audience going to relate to a desi history lesson, no matter how fun or funny? “The elements are Indian,” Naren responds, and adds, “but I believe the story of the world’s democracy is a universal one.” Plus, as the play’s poster smartly points out for people of other nationalities reading it: this way you won’t sound stupid when you talk to one in six people. Now that’s smart packaging.
The play will be staged on June 13 and 14 and subsequently the following weekend as well.