Staging a thoughtful story

BENGALURU: At the onset, Quasar Thakore-Padamsee, director of Every Brilliant Thing, says this is a first completely non-political play that the theatre group has done in a long time. But the script, the subject and the circumstances were so compelling that the core team at QTP production chose to do the short, one-man play dealing with issues of mental health over any other story.

Originally written by British writer Duncan Macmillan and adapted to Indian context, it is a participative play wherein the city-based performer, Vivek Madan, while narrating his story also involves the audience. The play focuses on mental health issues through the story of a seven-year-old boy, who is making a list of things “to live for” for his mother, who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide.

In the past few years, QTP has brought out productions on a wide range of issues such as dementia, freedom of expression, environment, displacement and agrarian crisis. The Mumbai-based theatreperson says they try and bring out one new play every year, along with their theatre festival, Thespo. Be it Mother Courage, which had Arundhati Nag; White Rabbit Red Rabbit, which was performed by several noted actors; or Project STRIP, there is always a larger thought behind doing that particular play at the time.

“When we select a play, as a company and not me individually, we ask, ‘is it a story worth telling?’ Also, is it a story that needs to be told? The second thing is how do we tell the story?,” says Thakore-Padamsee, who is the son of theatre icons Dolly Thakore and Alyque Padamsee, and started his theatrical journey away from Mumbai and his parents, at his boarding school. He fondly remembers how his father got him a cake on the final rehearsal of his first play, and didn’t interfere at all in the production. All the discussions about the plays were done after it was done, over a meal, within a few days of its opening.

Every Brilliant Thing, however, came about after ample discussions within the peer group. Thakore-Padamsee narrates a few experiences that helped them decide in taking up the production. “When we did preliminary readings with friends and theatre people, who we knew well, we realised at around 25 per cent had some connection to mental health issues – either they had experienced it or a family member had. Moreover, we are also seeing that many younger people are struggling, some of whom are brave enough to put up their hand and say so. We want to get this play to connect to people. So we are doing shows with smaller audience groups, and we have a conversation at the end of the play where people can ask questions if they want,” Thakore-Padamsee tells CE. “You will see several references to Bangalore also,” he points out, adding this is the first play they have rehearsed out of Mumbai because Madan, who contributed not just as an actor but also with other inputs, is based here.

The next shows will be performed on Sunday at 3.30pm and 7.30pm at Courtyard, Shantinagar. A discussion will be held after the 7.30pm show.