Bhasha Centre Playwriting Programme

Written by Ravikiran Rajendran Language: Kannada Approximate duration: 90 minutes SYNOPSIS In a Savarna world, how do Dalit women live is a question that is perhaps too ambitious to be addressed in a play. 'Live' is also a word that is packed with such an ambition. For centuries now though, Dalit women have practised art in various forms, and passed it down as heirloom from generation to generation. For a long time, this art was a way of identity, sometimes an escape from it. In an urban academic work space, how does a Dalit woman's art manifest? How is it received? What can she learn from how her mother and grandmother survived and how they managed to keep their art alive? In the words of writer Claudia Rankine, how does a self-self thrive in a world where people only recognise and value a historical self? The World of Writing tries to ‘find’ voices from the margins - Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi communities as if they never existed or the world of the dominant communitie...

Written by Amulya B Language: Kannada Approximate duration: 95 minutes SYNOPSIS What if you could be given a choice to not be born? Would you take it? Voluntarily giving up on the chance to procreate, Dhatri lives on an island with an isolated population of anti-natalists, who have turned their back on life, by sterilizing themselves. When an unexplained pregnancy occurs, the already fragile lives of characters are thrown into disarray. Parallelly, a man-made river, carrying hundreds of dead rivulets inside her has also descended upon the island, in search of salvation. Memories and dreams haunt the characters creating an atmosphere where uncanny has become the norm. The play is a response to the contemporary eco-anxiety when the most intelligent species of the earth cannot avert its eyes from the spectacle of its own destruction. AN EXCERPT [ರಂಗ ಇನ್ನೂ ಕತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿರುವಾಗಲೇ ಯಾರೋ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಉಸಿರಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸದ್ದು. ಜೊತೆ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಟಿಕ್ ಟಿಕ್ ಎಂಬ ಗಡಿಯಾರದ ಸದ್ದು ಬರುತ್ತಿದೆ. ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ ರಂಗದ ಮೇಲೆ ಬ...

Written by: Chirag Khandelwal Language: Hindi Approximate duration: 90 minutes   SYNOPSIS The power always lies with the storyteller. What does it mean to possess a power so all-encompassing that a ripple you create can flood someone else’s life? What if there is something more to the stories of your gods? What if your narrative is not the only truth, but one among many? Revisiting the incident where Hanuman brings an entire mountain to tend to an injured Lakshmana,this play examines different facets of unhinged power and its consequences. The war has just ended, and the pecking order is being arranged, once again. Power corrupts, of course. It spares neither the individual nor society.  The play becomes a canvas for the characters who are searching for something. Someone wants revenge, someone wants to get rid of the shame and guilt that has taken them hostage and someone else, power. Pure power. We follow the lives of these characters and their journ...

Written by Esthappen S Language: English for K underneath whom this play was first imagined. there is no one outside the window love. for those who were disappeared. may the oppressors lose. SYNOPSIS Kunja started slamming in order to escape the sickness that is the nation. And then slamming made Kunja sick. Now, his partner Gaurav wants to join the forces that protect the nation. Set in the year 2015, when Manipuri rebels ambushed an Indian Army convoy killing 20 soldiers and injuring several others in the deadliest attack on the Indian Army since the Kargil war, ‘The price is high’ explores the place of queerness among state institutions. It furthers the work that Tony Kushner started in ‘Angels of America’, but instead of placing queerness inside state institutions, the play takes its queer characters to the gates and gives them a peek at what lies for them inside before they make a choice to enter or walk away. AN EXCERPT The world has folded. A tree in Manipur now hang...

Written by Ayesha Susan Thomas Language: English Approximate duration: 90 mins SYNOPSIS There is nothing more dangerous than a woman who chooses who she wants to fuck. This sensory, interactive theatrical presentation plays with the myths and magical thinking that  surround and define the Female Body. A Textbook of Forensic Medicine in standard use across the  country today, defines the breasts of a virgin as “hemispherical, firm, plump and elastic”, while that of a “deflorate” woman as “enlarged and flabby”.  If women are flowers waiting to be plucked, crushed and fucked- what does that make men? Men who are uninterested in owning women, who disavow marriage or their pre-defined roles of sexual  initiator, aggressor, violator? This work-in-progress reading navigates some of these questions and follows the threads of various  stories to find their source. The subject of study was inspired by the work and writing of  Dr Suchitra Dalvi and ...

Written by Neeraja MR Language: Malayalam Approximate duration: 90 minutes Synopsis: Ever since Smitha heard her sister, Malini and her husband Krishnan are coming home, she has not been able to sleep well. Nightmares haunt her as her parents, Janaki and Sumesh prepare for a feast to welcome the couple. What is disturbing Smitha that she cannot confide in her family and why? Her father, a theyyam artist is fighting his health to prepare for what could be one of his last theyyam performances. Will faith help him endure the performance? As human beings are left to grapple with the stark realities of life, Muchilottu Bhagavthy, a Theyyam Goddess has to deal with a new opponent in her dwelling, a shadow from her past, a burnt body of a woman. Will she be able to make peace with her past? What stories are told and not told? What does it take to tell a story? What does it mean to be a Goddess? What is sacred? An Excerpt -------------------------------------------------- Excerpt...