Humour meets awareness: 'Knockers' delivers a unique take on breast cancer experiences
Last weekend brought about an important and engaging performance in Bengaluru in the form of Knockers, performed by KS Neeharika and written and directed by V Balakrishnan. A production by the popular Chennai-based theatre company Theatre Nisha, founded by Balakrishnan, Knockers explores stories of multiple women who experience life after mastectomy. Tackling the emotional, physical and societal aftermath, the director delves into the making of the five monologues that will encap-sulate the different experiences with a touch of wit.
How Theatre Nisha's 'Knockers' uses humor to illuminate post-mastectomy journeys
How did you decide on the humorous tone for the subject matter of Knockers?
Primarily, the important aspect for us was that, albeit this play is about breast cancer survivors, we did not want to make it heavy. We wanted to ensure that people can look at this play in a very comfortable situation. And even though the play tackles questions about identity and stigma, we wanted it to be done with a lot of humour. That was the template, which was recurring through all the work we did on this play in terms of its design, dialogues and even in the poster.
How did you work with Neeharika, who is carrying these five distinct, heavy lives in one performance? What were the conversations like?
It was very important to identify the conflict that each one of these people are undergoing. So, for one of them, it was about figuring out how to approach intimacy. For the other, it was about challenging the very aspect of a society which demands uniformity and synchronisation. And so what was really important was to figure out what is the conflict each of these characters is experiencing. And those conflicts differentiate who they are, even though they may have gone through more or less a similar procedure.
What made the monologue format the medium for this story?
One thing was the subject by itself. When any person discovers that they have been diagnosed with any cancer, in this case, breast cancer, it does become a very personal thing. It is very individual, despite whatever support you might have — family-wise, partner-wise or society-wise. It is a very, very personal thing. So it becomes very important that these narratives are put forth by an individual and not shared by people who are not going through it. In that sense, even writing this play, it was not me trying to pretend that I know about what a person goes through after mastectomy. My job basically was to put together and make this play, which comes after having talked to a lot of survivors. So nowhere was I trying to mansplain what a mastectomy is about. As a playwright, my job was only to make this play highlight the physical and emotional aftermath of breast cancer treatment.