Combining poetry, music, dance to tell everyday stories

Devised in collaboration with four artists, ‘Stories from my Living Room’ combines music, poetry and dance to explore human emotions like anxiety, loneliness and the comfort one derives from companionship. Through their performance, the performers — Malcolm Carvalho, Meghna Das, Samyuktha Manogaran and Charu Mittal — seek to unravel the transformative power these emotions can have on people. In a chat with Metrolife, the director Charu Mittal, talks about the making of the play and more.

Tell us about the title and why you chose it?

I grew up listening to and telling stories from a very young age. My parents always ensured that I grew up surrounded by poetry and music and words and that has impacted the way I respond to people and situations. I chose the title ‘Stories from my Living Room’ because these are intimate stories that speak of universal feelings of love and longing, of home and companionship. All the stories being told are very personal to the artists and they bare their complete vulnerable souls to the audience.

Do the stories relate to modern-day situations?

The stories being told transcend time and space. No matter who you are or where you’ve come from, you would have experienced heartbreak in some form, you would’ve experienced the joy and the pain of falling in love for the first time. You would have also leaned on your friends and family for support during difficult situations. In a world that’s trying to emphasize our differences, this performance focuses on all the emotions and feelings that make us similar and essentially make us human.

What is the idea behind bringing multiple artists on one stage?

The performance evolved very organically. It wasn’t a conscious decision to bring together different artists, but the idea was just to be able to tell all these very different stories in the most engaging manner possible.

How is it to use poetry, dance and music to convey something?

Poetry, dance and music are really fluid forms that complement each other very well. We can express ourselves artistically in various ways - music, dance, poetry, painting, etc. These artistic expressions can be related, connected or inspired by the other. For me, I’ve always been inspired by this inter-connectivity of art and how it can be used to convey abstract emotions.