World Sparrow Day will be celebrated on March 20 this year, and a new play, A Zoom Call Re: Birds, premieres online. It explores the idea of what it means to be in tune with the environment and the call of birds.
Scripted by Saudamini Kalra and Tushar Mathew, the play is presented by the theatre group Indian Ensemble. “It was during the lockdown that Saudamini started noticing that there were many birds in her suburb. The more she became aware of it, she realised that there were enough birds around her home, and that she didn’t have to go out in the wild looking for them. She started talking about it with
others, and we realised that our urban surroundings actually have a lot of diverse species. This is what led to the idea for the play,” says Shubham Roy Choudhury, executive director, Indian Ensemble.
It’s not just another Zoom play, say the people behind the show. The concept note specifies — ‘it’s a performative audio-visual experience made for the digital medium and free from geographical boundaries.’ Explaining what this means, Shubham says, “During the pandemic, we decided not to take any of our existing plays online, or publish recordings of old plays. But now, we are gradually moving out of the auditorium space, and digital-interactive theatre is a reality that we need to respond to immediately. This play is more like an audio-visual experience, and sound plays a key role. The narrative includes a performance by two artistes, an interview with Karuppuraja (a Tamil Nadu native who was in the news for
saving an Oriental Magpie Robin), and an interactive game with the audience.”
The group consciously decided to create a show about urban surroundings. “It’s not always about fighting to save a lake or a rainforest, even our immediate environment needs attention,” signs off Shubham.
Rs 300. March 19 and 21, 7.30 pm
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