A nonetheless from the play
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
We could have healed bodily from the devastations of the pandemic, however the emotional scars could run deep for a lot of. Whereas some have realized to maneuver on, for others, it might have rocked the boat of their relationships and their souls. That’s what the English play, Locked Down, directed by Susanto Banerjee delves into.
“The script was developed through the first part of the lockdown,” says Susanto. “We weren’t in a position to be bodily current at a rehearsal house, so we gathered on a name and began inviting tales from the members of our theatre group.”
There was no agenda, Susanto says once they began sharing tales. “It was extra like a platform to share experiences. Whereas doing so, seven profound tales got here forth and we felt they might be stitched collectively to make a play.”
The poster of the play
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
The characters had been created first, says Susanto. “They had been then divided into tales and scenes and constructed into sequences. This was later shared with Ruby Lala and Antara Mukherjee, who wrote the play for us”.
Locked Down was first staged in 2022. “We revisited the play and made some edits. We added a number of extra insights and recreated it. We’re staging the up to date model now. Locked Down is a devised play as it’s devised from scratch.”
The play, with 13 actors on stage in a sensible format, is a collage of tales and feelings. “The way in which I take a look at play is the best way you’d understand a tree from high down. First you see the leaves and the branches. As you descend additional you see the trunk, however can’t see the roots. But, the dimensions of the tree and its trunk offers you an thought of how robust and deep the roots are. That’s how the play seems at folks and relationships — first at a macro stage and narrowing right down to the deeper points about relationships”.
Ventures Theatre was began by Susanto and his spouse Mahua Sengupta. Susanto began his journey in theatre in 1999 and moved to Bengaluru in 2005, took a break for a number of years after which based Ventures Theatre.
The tagline of Ventures Theatre is a platform for theatre and theatre-based studying. “We began Theatre Based mostly Behavioural Studying within the areas of battle administration, emotional intelligence, unconscious bias, staff constructing, verbal and non-verbal communication and extra.”
Director Susanto Banerjee
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
The pandemic, Susanto says, made the world take a look at on-line choices. “We forayed into utilizing the digital platform for theatre too, making it a viable choice to expertise this distinctive providing.”
Each Susanto and Mahua come from the company world, however Susanto stop his job to present extra time to theatre. “I exploit theatre for behavioural studying, which I take to the corporates and am additionally on the advisory board of some startups.”
Ventures Theatre’s very first play was in Bengali. “Khub Kacher was staged solely as soon as. The next 4 productions had been in English to achieve a bigger viewers. Most of our performs are set in such a method that it could actually occur in any metropolis or place. Locked Down particularly reminds us of the lockdown attributable to sure distinctive options of that point which discover a method into this play.”
Talking about subtitling performs, Susanto says, “My private expertise with subtitles has not been good. Once they come up on a display screen via a projector on to a display screen on the stage, it distracts the viewers from the principle motion and story taking place on stage. One of the best factor, I imagine in, is to present a synopsis of the play upfront after which stage the play with none subtitles.”
Locked Down will likely be staged on July 12, at Bangalore Worldwide Centre at 7.30pm. Tickets can be found on BookMyShow.
