Merging the real and virtual

To enthrall the audience with its contemporary topics and themes, the repertory company of National School of Drama recently presented a play titled- ‘Aadha Chand’ in the national Capital. The play that was scheduled from April 7 had different shows at different timings along with additional shows on Saturday and Sunday.

Written and directed by Tripurari Sharma, the play talks about the inequality and loneliness that prevails in our society, irrespective of connectivity. The easiest thing to do today is to call and it could also be the most complicated as we can be anywhere and be connected to anywhere. 

The director says: “We are all woven into this pattern of connectivity, but does it make us all equal. Does it make us friends? Can we be at par as global citizens? Trade and business have always been synonymous with widening of routes. This window has opened opportunities. It has also unshackled boundaries. We confront different layers of reality.”

The past two decades have seen a rise in the spread of call centres around us, providing employment to many people, especially the young. These are the nerve centres connected to the world. The voice is the connecting thread, but the voice that speaks through the phone belongs to a person. Yet can this person claim her or his voice? This play tries to bring forth some of the experiences that arise from this contradiction-being here and also everywhere. The home and the workplace are almost opposites. The professional makes unprecedented demands on the personal and almost subjugates it. Identities are altered, voices manufactured, an individual at times is only a product or a mere wrapping.

The play is not about a call centre. This space metaphorises the real and the virtual, trapped by market and enmeshed by the knots of gender, power and control. When so much changes, can a person remain true to his/her inner core? These are big questions and this play is only a modest attempt to grapple with some of them through episodes strung loosely together in this half moon phase of our development. Actually, it may not be a play at all as the scenes try to essay or share some bits and pieces of daily happenings.