Quasar Thakore Padamsee is a theatre director who has over 25 plays to his credit. Son of theatre veterans Dolly Thakore and Alyque Padamsee, he is not only a theatre practitioner but also an ardent lover of the art. However, it was only after a stint in advertising that he decided to pursue theatre. Along with Arghya Lahiri, Christopher Samuel, Nadir Khan, Toral Shah and Vivek Rao, he formed the QTP, a production company. Their most notable works include ‘So Many Socks’ and ‘The God of Carnage’.
The group will be staging their play ‘Every Brilliant Thing’, which has been nominated for the META Awards for Best Play and Best Actor (Vivek Madan) in Bengaluru this weekend. In a quick chat with Metrolife Quasar spoke about his love for theatre, the play, and more:
Did growing up in a family of theatre practitioners influence you?
In some ways it didn’t influence me at all, and on the other hand, it influenced me in strange ways. I went to a boarding school. I actually made my own journey to theatre. As a child, I was dragged to many plays by my mother, against my wishes. I took part in school plays, but it was in college that I started directing. It was here that I discovered a group of people who was just as mad and passionate about theatre. I am quite fortunate that I still work with them; in some ways, they are the ones I grew up with. My mother, however, taught me to love theatre. She taught me to watch everything. Today, I watch about 100 to 150 shows across languages in a year.
Do you think it was easier to make it because of your parents?
Of course, there were perks; but mostly those under-the-radar ones, such as having access to contacts of set builders. I think people also took me more seriously when I started out because of the assumption that I came from some knowledge. It also brings some baggage, because there are people who expect me to be a chip off the same block.
How do you choose your plays?
I like to choose works that speak about the world around us. I find it hard to be excited about a story if it is not in some ways connected to the current situation. As a director, I want a play to touch upon the reality, on a micro or macro level.
What are the challenges involved in being a full-time theatre artiste?
That plays brings fewer people, compared to the cinema or television, is actually what makes it special. That is what makes it a community experience. The theatre is a live experience; it can never be recreated. I also think that the theatre is currently the most active it has been in my entire life, which is very exciting. That being said, it is not something we can retire off. The positive aspect of this is that the people who are involved are here for the love of it, and not for the paycheque. We are drug addicts; theatre is our drug, and many of us take up another job to sustain the habit.
What inspired you to adapt ‘Every Brilliant Thing’?
Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe created something incredible. I was moved by it when I read it and I immediately called up Toral and Vivek and asked them to read it. They too fell in love. It is an incredible delicate and fragile story that is so beautifully constructed to talk about mental health issues. We adapted the play to fit the Indian context because it has to connect with the audience, which was something Macmillan asked for in one of the first introductions he wrote.
How did you go about in Indianising the play?
So here we have a boy who grows up in Bengaluru, much like Vivek, the performer. In fact, we have used many aspects of his life as material. There is a description of the house in one the passages, and it is actually a description of the house he grew up in. We kept airing the play for different audiences. We even crowdsourced a list of the incredible things the character lists. It is also supposed to be an interactive play, and we had to ensure that we maintained a safe space since it was such a sensitive subject. Every time we perform this play we end up creating such incredible conversation.
What are you looking forward to about performing for Bengaluru audience?
We did a lot of our initial rehearsals in this city, so staging it here always feels like we are bringing the play home. I also love that here, people who come for the play, come just for that. They are very committed, which always allows us to really hang out with our audience after.
‘Every Brilliant Thing’
The play will be staged on March 7 and 8, 5 pm and 7.30 pm, at Atta Galatta, Koramangala. The play directed by Quasar Thakore Padamsee and performed by Vivek Madan tells the story of a young boy who starts a list of all that's wonderful about the world, so his ailing mother cheers up, and finds a reason to go on.
Tickets on Insider.