'Venum Ponnu', a poignant play on gender discrimination, is an important tale being staged in Chennai this weekend
Venum Ponnu, a poignant short play, packs a powerful emotional punch. Despite its brevity, this production, written and directed by Prasanna Rajaram, leaves a lasting impression. Tackling a significant subject, Venum Ponnu is a standout piece in the Short+Sweet theatre festival in Chennai. We sat down with Prasanna to delve deeper into the inspiration and impact of this thought-provoking work. Excerpts:
Tell us about what your play will explore.
This play explores a very Indian concept of naming a girl child with the hope of having a male child as the next one. While it’s not common knowledge, it still happens throughout India in almost all the states. The names may change but the horrible thoughts remain.
What are some aspects of the characters you wrote, that you hope the audience will take with them too?
These are two sisters who were named for such a reason. The main thing I want the audience to take back is to not keep quiet about this practice. Whoever has seen this play, has walked up to me and told me about the people they knew with similar names in their states. The objective is to stop this practice somehow.
What have been some memorable moments from the rehearsals for you?
Both my actors have daughters and they cherish them. It was an emotional journey for both of my actors going through my script for the first time. The response I got was amazing. They gave me the confidence to take this play forward.
How challenging or easy was it for you to adapt the story into a shorter format?
It was quite difficult. During my research, I read so many stories about this practice throughout India. I picked one of the stories from there and revolved my play around that one real-life incident.
What do you look forward to the most during this festival?
A fun amalgamation of various genres of theatre and enjoying them. Meeting old friends and making new ones.
Being a theatre artiste in Chennai what does a platform like Short and Sweet mean for you?
A platform like Short and Sweet is an absolute necessity as it’s difficult to produce shows otherwise for most people. The infrastructure and the support system provided by Prakriti to run this festival is a confidence booster to promote theatre in Chennai and all around India as well.
Tickets at INR 250.
On September 27, 28 and 29, 7 pm onwards.
At Alliance Française of Madras, Nungambakkam