In employing the navarasas to tell trans stories, Sharanya has done an absolutely effective job. When you do sex work, that's a performance," she explains. After all, "when you wear flowers and ask for money, that's a performance. She knows they are not trained in the traditional theatre art, but instinctively makes use of the fact that these nine transwomen know performance. However, the blocking can be improved upon, so that the compositions can be more effective.Īs a director, Sharanya has really tried to retain the truth and vulnerability of her actors.
The bhav is based on her own emotional memory, she later explains.Įqually memorable is the performance of a cop by Prarthana, whose body gestures are so original because they are based on her real life experiences. For example, Purushi displays a brilliant facial expression while enacting sadness at discovering the truth of her father. The actors really shine in some of the scenes. The highlight of the play has got to be the acting. As Swetha explores a memory of her childhood friend in a scene, the light is kept deliberately green because that's how she remembers the fields she used to play in with that friend. Or Thara changing into a pant-suit, while performing the karuna rasa as she makes a journey to meet her son. Even the red-dotted sari Chandri wears as she describes the adbhuta rasa she felt wearing a saree for the first time, is powerful. There is also an innovative use of props, particularly flowers, as they transition from one composition to the next. The writing, which is based on the real life stories of the transwomen, is brave, raw and away from all cliches. The storytelling flows naturally and with an ease. The bhayanak rasa - a common occurrence for transwomen in such a situation - is felt by the audience for the first time.
In one of the scenes, some of the audience members are invited to a party when all of a sudden there's a fearful commotion. As they break the fourth wall in highly inventive ways, the audience can't help but get emotionally invested with the stories of these transwomen. Funded by the International Relief Fund for Organisations in Culture and Education 2021, the Goethe-Institut and Ranga Shankara, the 75-minute-play sees transwomen with no theatre background turn into nayakis and hold their own.ĭirector Sharanya takes it upon herself to figure out novel ways in which a people that have been denied a space in theatre for so long can redefine it and expand its grammar. NAVA tells the stories of nine urban transwomen through the nine rasas. And then, there's the question: sure, it's a novel experiment. That's the first thing you feel when you see nine transwomen walking onto the stage all set to perform the navarasas.
0 kommentar(er)
