Into the mind of women

fascinating play

The ‘Deccan Herald Theatre Festival’ is back this year with many more acts to entertain the City. The festival starts on February 7, with Jagriti performing the play ‘All About Women’ by Miro Gavran, which will be staged at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.

   Two sisters who are at loggerhead with each other and then their mother; three friends who are driven by ambition; three kindergarten girls and three ladies in a retirement home – ‘All About Women’ interweaves the stories of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship and lovers n this magnum opus.  Three actors manage to portray multiple characters with ease.

    The play is by Miro Gavran,  a Croatian playwright and novelist, whose works have been translated into 35 languages.

   His plays have had more than 200 first nights worldwide and have been seen by more than two million theatregoers.

   He is the only living playwright in Europe to have a theatre festival devoted to his work: the ‘Gavranfest’, founded in Slovakia in 2003, is held every year.

Says Arundhati Raja, the director of the play, “After directing several plays with large and predominantly male casts, I  decided that I needed to do a play with small and all female cast. When I heard about this play, which required just three female actors, I was sold. I had to read the script too though.

I couldn’t find a published version anywhere. I found an email ID on the playwright’s website ad shot off a request for a copy. In less than two hours I had a wonderful email back from the playwright himself with attachments of several of his plays!”

“Three actors play five roles ranging in age from five to 90 years in a script that alternates and interweaves five life stories. It demands three skilled actors with an ability to not only change costume and hair in a very short time but more importantly, their character. Many other productions of this play have taken an easy way out by
casting more than three actors. But the playwright says right at the beginning of the script that only three should be cast.  I’m a playwright’s director – I stick to their dialogue and their requests. Besides, I love a theatrical challenge,” she adds.

This play will also be staged at Jagriti on February 12 and 13, and at Rangashankara on March 3.

The tickets are available at the Deccan Herald, MG Road office, between 10 am to 5 pm (Monday to Saturday) and on www.indianstage.in and www.bookmyshow.com.
For details, call 25880147 / 141.

You can also log onto the website — www.deccanherald.com