As part of the ‘Deccan Herald Theatre Festival’, Jagriti had presented ‘All About Women’, written by Croatian playwright Miro Gavran and directed by Arundhati Raja.
Looking back at the festival and why she chose this particular one, Arundhati says, “The festival is popular with a lot of people and what better way to get as many people to watch the play than at ‘DH Theatre Festival’? We have always waited for this festival because it does its bit to keep the theatre scene alive in the City.”
Theatre stalwart Jagdish Raja confesses that he and Arundhati have been part of the festival since its inception. “The festival was the first-of-its-kind when it started and then a lot of other groups began follow suit but I must say that such a festival is a great community service and should be saluted.
‘All About Women’ has Rebecca Spurgeon, Anuja Ghosalkar and Bhavana Rajendran playing the three protagonists. These three women have strong personalities which add to the strength of the play. Each one of them are active in theatre.
Arundhati confesses that she was always passionate about stories related to women and that’s when she came across this play. “Each of the three stories about the three women are relevant to current times. I had a lot of people in the audience coming to me and telling me that they could instantly connect with the characters in the play,” says Arundhati.
Anuja, one of the members of the play, says that after reading the script, she found out that one actor gets to play five different characters and that had left her impressed. Anuja played the character of a 60-year-old mother, who is caught between her two daughters.
It is clear that the character has remained with her. “I think I understand my mother better now. I look back at times when I used to have differences with my sibling and how hard it must have been for my mother to take sides,” she says. “I think I am a little more empathetic of her situation now. As an actor, trying to pitch all five characters I was playing, in voice, gesture and in attitude, was a huge learning experience,” she adds.
Bhavana Rajendran was floored by how real the script was. “The five stories could actually be happening to people any where around the world. However, the fascinating part of it was, the more I read it, the more I understood it and the finer nuances in the relationships between the characters in each sketch,” she says.
Anuja Ghosalkar describes being part of such an event as fantastic. “I think the festival has indeed reached out to a variety of people and brought in diverse audiences, which is good for theatre in general,” she says. Bhavana pitches in saying that it was an honour to be a part of it. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet some lovely people, work with a few of Bengaluru’s finest, and perform a single script at three very different and very prestigious venues,” she adds.
