Centre stage: The fall theatre calendar
Editor’s note: The splainer team has put together a list of the best theatre coming your way this season, from one-person shows starring seasoned thespians and Bollywood stalwarts, to extravagant ensembles and intimate, baithak-style musicals. Check out our fall theatre calendar for performances you must catch in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Kolkata.
MUMBAI
‘Garam Roti’ serves us “rants and rotis” via moving performances and immersive sound. Replete with recordings of real interviews and conversations with women about their relationship with cooking, the show interrogates the long-standing belief that a woman’s worth and identity lies in her ability to provide—more simply, can she make garam rotis? Durga Venkatesan takes the stage as the solo performer in this 75-minute play about patriarchy in the domestic realm.
When: October 23
Where: The Cube, NMACC
Written, directed, and composed by Devendra Ahirwar, ‘Bohot Zor Se Pyar Laga Hai’ is filled with nostalgia, memories of first love, and the harsh reality of migrating to a new place. Guddu, nursing a broken heart and a suitcase full of dreams, moves to the big city. In this Hindi baithak-style musical comedy, we follow him as he makes his way through this new, unfamiliar world, making friends and building a family of people just like him.
When: October 26
Where: Royal Opera House
Akvarious brings us a philosophical banger with ‘Sissy’, blending reality and fiction, questioning what it means to find meaning at all. Using magical realism and starring Dhrreti Bhatt and Akarsh Khurana, the play takes us through the life of a young woman, her ups and downs, and what she believes to be true.
When: October 15
Where: Harkat Studios
This musical production is about two distinct journeys and personal histories, and how they come together. Jahnvi Shrimankar is classically trained, while Kailash Waghmare’s musical story is more improvisational and experience driven. The two share their pasts, and how they grew to become the artists they wanted to be, in this lightly humorous play directed by Sapan Saran. Further, ‘Same Same But Different’ presents to its audience music ranging from Lavani, Haveli Sangeet, devotional music, Garba, folk sounds from western India, and much more.
When: November 28
Where: Swantantryaveer Savarkar Smarak Sabhagriha
DELHI NCR
Einstein (at Delhi Theatre Festival)
The beloved Naseeruddin Shah steps back into the role of the great genius in Gabriel Emanuel’s long-running one-man, two-act play, ‘Einstein’. Directed by Shah himself, the production explores the scientist’s regrets and contributions—in whatever way he may have—to the creation of the atom bomb, as well as his exclusion from the Manhattan Project for being Jewish.
The play is set in Einstein’s Princeton study on his 70th birthday, and we see Shah donning a grey sweater, sporting Einstein’s trademark messy hair and a big moustache, ruminating over his life. We, the audience, are made privy to Einstein the scientist here. But equally, the play offers a glimpse into Einstein the human being.
When: November 14, 15
Where: Sirifort Auditorium, Delhi
When: November 16
Where: Aurum Conventions, Gurugram
‘Dekh Behen’, based on ‘Alan Ball’s Five Women Wearing the Same Dress’, pulls us into a big fat Delhi wedding, with five bridesmaids talking and bitching about their lives before the festivities enter full swing. These women, as we learn during the course of the play, have one big thing in common: they all dislike the bride.
A bittersweet comedy about girlhood, friendship, and wedding stresses, ‘Dekh Behen’ brings us an all-female cast in a celebration of the women we share our lives with.
When: November 15
Where: Little Theatre Group
Vinay Pathak reprises his role as the sad clown in ‘Nothing Like Lear’, a one-man production directed by his longtime collaborator Rajat Kapoor. The two stalwarts of theatre and off-centre Bollywood come together on this adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. The 100-minute monologue sees Pathak’s character—which he’s been playing on and off for over a decade—head into novel new directions, speaking a mix of English and gibberish, as he grapples with despair, aging, sadness, and a sense of depression that’s taking over.
When: November 14
Where: Kamani Auditorium
Two decades after parting ways, Alisha and Pranav bump into each other at a college reunion. What ensues, only time will tell. Written and directed by Akarsh Khurana, ‘This Time’ is a drama-comedy about growing up, lost love, and past friendships.
When: November 14
Where: Oddbird Theatre
BENGALURU
In Mahesh Dattani’s ‘Bravely Fought the Queen’, we spend a day in the life of the Trivedi family. The two sons who married two sisters, and a mother who moves back and forth between the two homes. Fast-paced, witty, and rife with familial disagreements and discord, the 1991 play is acclaimed for being a sharp and honest portrayal of the urban Indian family.
Although written over three decades ago, it is set in contemporary times and remains just as relevant today, exposing the ugliness that can lurk beneath a carefully curated life. It’s provocative and probing in its questions about gender, and solidifies Dattani’s place among India’s finest playwrights.
When: October 17
Where: Jagriti Theatre
When: October 19
Where: Alliance Francaise
Viren, Shree, and Deepak come up with Cool Pods—designed to keep the world cool. They want to use technology to prevent the world from flaming away. They bring it to a tech talent show. But will they bag that Rs. 2 crore seed fund? Or will climate change defeat them too? ‘Fever Dream’, a play that looks at the problems of climate change with deftness, has been created as a collaboration between tafreehwale and Asar under their initiative Climate Culture Collective.
When: October 17
Where: Bangalore International Centre
Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival
Written by Shanta Gokhale, ‘Something Like Truth’ challenges the very ideas of truth, freedom, and justice through four distinct monologues. A fictional depiction of the lives of women from different parts of the world—from France to Sri Lanka to India—the play, directed by Parna Pethe, examines what truth means to people and why they lie. It’s an intimate, personal examination of these four women, connected but so different, and so far apart.
When: October 25
‘Kavan’, directed by Abhishek Majumdar, is a sprawling 150-minute musical, featuring an ensemble of performers from Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch, a group of anti-caste theatre artists. The play is based on real life events, and captures the rapidly changing landscape of India as a nation. It follows Bejul, a young man whose father’s passing leads him to the discovery of the manmade barriers he is surrounded by. Will he follow in his father’s footsteps and become a ‘Shahir’, raising his voice against the oppressor through the Ambedkarite musical form his father knew, or will he reject that life for something different?
When: October 24
What happens when you die? Where do you go? Neel Chaudhuri’s ‘Aakhirkaar’, inspired by stories from neuroscientist David Eagleman’s speculative fiction on Sum, follows seven people into the afterlife. It wonders if you are more than the sum of your parts. It makes you think about the choices you make while you live.
When: October 26
KOLKATA
As the titular song, ‘Aur Karo Theatre’, goes, “Na naukri, na chhokri, na gaadi, na ghar, aur karo theatre.” (No job, no girlfriend, no car, no house; keep doing theatre.) This introspective 90-minute musical by Gopal Dutt chronicles his life as an artist and theatre-maker through song. Each song here, in fact, was originally meant to be part of different theatrical productions. Dutt brings them together and presents a comic commentary on the state of the world through satire and personal stories. ‘Aur Karo Theatre’ lays bare the thin line between passion and survival through its inventive blend of music and theatre.
When: November 30
Where: Kolkata Centre for Creativity
A veteran actor, Satyasheel (played by Kumud Mishra), is battling the passage of time in this play within a play. As he struggles with his slow fade into oblivion, bowing out from the stage he calls home, he comes face to face with Paritosh (Sandeep Shikhar), his estranged son who, incidentally, is being primed to replace him.
This Oedipean storyline unspools itself as the two perform a play together, as Eklavya’s ghost and Abhimanyu (drawing from the Mahabharata). ‘Kaumudi’, directed by Abhishek Majumdar, is an elaborate production with a glittering cast—it’s a dense, tightly packed exploration of complex human emotions unfolding on the grand stage.
When: November 15
Where: G D Birla Sabhaghar
‘Nothing Like Persepolis’ is based loosely on Persepolis, Marjani Satrapi’s graphic novel, which details the early years of Satrapi’s life in Iran and Austria during the Islamic Revolution. Opening at the Urban Theatre Project, the play follows three women who speak their hearts out on stage, following their choices, their joys, their conflicts. Sourav Nath, the director, hopes that through it, he can remind everyone that we must stand up for what we believe despite the odds.
When: October 19
Where: Urban Theatre Project
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Liked this theatre calendar? Check out our fall art calendar from September—a list of exhibitions you must check out this season!
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