CHENNAI: City-based theatre group Crea-Shakthi will screen their next play Dolls, this weekend. Directed by Dushyanth Gunashekar, it has a strong women cast — Janaki Sabesh, Manasvini KR, Kadambari Narendran, Namita Krishnamurthy, Shradha Venkatraman, Akshaya Ravishankar, Ananya Shankar, Dhwani Giri, Aparnaa Nagesh and Zarin Shihab. Dolls portrays the modern Indian women and what defines them.
Dushyanth says that the process of devising it was inspiring and at the same time scary too. “I was dealing with real stories and emotions of people. We started devising the play after hours of conversations with the actors who shared their stories. The script by itself is only a reference. The content was already there — I just had to chisel it,” says Dushyanth.
Directing an all women cast and talking about women, the challenges and conflicts they face regularly was challenging for the director too. “Dolls, by far, has been my most challenging play emotionally. I always assumed I was very clear on my stand on women, their rights and their way of life. I could never find myself in a position where I would ever abuse my privilege as a man.
Through this process, overcoming my privilege was a huge challenge. It made me aware of how there are inherent biases even now,” he adds. Narrating it as a monologue in different styles of storytelling, each woman shares her story, bringing to the stage countless number of emotions which have often been ignored by the society. Janaki’s story, for instance, is a conversation between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. “My mother-in-law has inspired me. On TV, you see a clichéd portrayal of an evil mother-in-law. I want to break that myth through my act,” she adds.
Manasvini, a city-based Bharatanatyam dancer who will be debuting in theatre with Dolls says, initially she found the script difficult, but the director guided her. “It was so hilarious when I read the script for the first time. I was reading it out like how they would read the items before a dance recital,” she laughs.
Dolls will be staged on November 5 from 4 pm at Palavakkam. For details call: 99401 38749