Striding into a dark room, Jayant Kripalani turns on the lights and focuses them sharply on the handful of people waiting to hear him speak on his new theatre project. Running a series of video clips about violence on women, the theatre veteran unwraps Lights Out, the play his school-leaving cast of five will stage at GD Birla Sabhagar on July 17 and 18.
“It’s pure black comedy and is about how we all are in denial when incidents of violence on women occur around us. I can say that the audience will identify with the characters,” says Kripalani, who has conceived the show and just let the youths do what they wanted. “And I am having a blast,” he adds.
Scripted in 1985-86 by Delhi-based writer Manjula Padmanabhan, Lights Out deals with domestic abuse on a woman and the way it upsets the complacent equilibrium in the neighbourhood.
The show is part of the Peaceworks project that Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre conducts with school students, and is co-sponsored by Sanskriti Sagar and Swayam, an NGO working for women.
Shorn of any furniture, the set boasts a backdrop by artist K.G. Subramanyan, no less. “Manida had done a series of window paintings some time ago. When Naveen (Naveen Kishore of Seagull) asked him to design the set with the window in mind, he readily agreed,” says Sumit Roy, in charge of lights. That the on-stage action is “mostly visible through the window” is all Roy is willing to divulge.
For Swayam, bonding with the Peaceworks project is one of the ways it wants to spread awareness about violence on women. “Culture is an effective medium of change and this forms a part of our programmes for raising awareness about closed-door violence,” says Anuradha Kapoor of Swayam.
After Hidden Faces last year, Lights Out is the second play by Padmanabhan to be staged by Peaceworks in a span of two years.
“Because Peaceworks tries to promote some sort of peace and we believe in theatre for change,” explains Kripalani, who is planning Hindi and Bengali adaptations of the play as well. Peaceworks intends to take the show across schools and colleges.
