JOIN USRevived: Interactive play about prejudices
This weekend, theatre director Anmol Vellani brings back a play on prejudices, which he had first staged in college in early 1970s.
“It seemed to me that the material could be adapted to our present context where it is easy to trigger the subliminal, irrational fears we hold,” says Vellani, explaining why he reimagined ‘Oldenberg’, an English play written by Barry Bermange at the peak of anti-immigration sentiments in the UK, as ‘Apne Ghar Jaisa’ in Hindi. Back in college, he had stuck to the original material.
Here, an elderly conservative woman is waiting for a young man to arrive. He has rented a room in her house. Who is he? Where is he from? Why does he have an unusual name? Will he keep the room clean? Her mind is fraught with questions.
In a departure from the original, where the woman shares her anxiety with her husband, here, she will be talking to the audience until the
tenant arrives. “By asking ‘You also agree with me, right?’, the woman is making the audience complicit in her prejudices,” Vellani shares.
While it may appear that the play is commenting on the friction between house owners and tenants in cities like Bengaluru, it’s more layered than that. “Are you a vegetarian or non-vegetarian? What is your religious denomination? Are you married? We experience (such questions) in urban India. But this reality points to the prejudices people carry in themselves, which they express in these conditions they put down,” he explains.
As scenes between the owner (played by Padmavati Rao) and the tenant (by Abhitej Gupta) progress and the focus shifts to a model of a white room, the play reveals itself. It becomes a story of loss and longing, hope and insecurities, and prejudices that shape us.
‘ Apne Ghar Jaisa’ at 7.30 pm on April 21, and at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm on April 22, at Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar. Tickets at the venue.