Real life experiences weaved into a play

Susanto Banerjee’s play, Locked Down, premiers at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. The play is scheduled to be staged on March 19 (7 pm) and 20 (3 pm and 6.30 pm).

Scripted by Antara Mukherjee and Ruby Lalla, this will be Ventures Theatre’s fifth play and is directed by Susanto. “The play is devised from a collection of stories narrated by our members, which are stitched and scripted into one story that talks about the many facets of relationships that came to the fore during the pandemic,” says Susanto, who quit his corporate job to pursue theatre. He is also the founder of Ventures Theatre Group, which was started in 2014.

A still from the play

The play will be presented in a collage format, says the director, who reveals: “Even during COVID-19, we kept rehearsing and Locked Down has been devised from scratch, inspired by the stories of people we work with. It is not about the pandemic nor the suffering, but deals with relationships, their depth, perceptions, challenges and where they end up. The context of COVID-19 challenged relationships. We were cut off from the world, but crammed for space. We had to live and work and literally be together for 24 hours under the same roof. These are the aspects that the play talks about.”

Locked Down is also a story around empathy, which is often spoken about, but less understood, says Susanto.

Tickets for the show are available on bookmyshow.com