Written and directed by Gowri Ramnarayan, What She Said: Six Voices from the Ramayana promises to give you a revolutionary take on characters from the epic. Presented by JustUs Repertory and Chennai Art Theatre, the script of the play surprises by moving away from the usual male heroes and focusing on Urmila, Manthara, Surpanakha, Tara, Mandodari, and the forgotten Shanta, as individuals with powerful but untold stories that are relevant to our times. Gowri says, “I discovered that these women do not merely inhabit the sidelines of puranic stories and times. Their problems reflect the situation of women today, the quandaries of the world today. I found that I was writing a play not about way back when, but now. I heard them raising disturbing questions which are very much alive in our contemporary world. But exploring those issues is emancipatory. And I hope that searching for answers together with our audience will bring insight and understanding.” An all-woman cast has Sunandha Raghunathan, Akhila Ramnarayan, and Aarabi Veeraraghavan portraying the six women.
At Medai, Alwarpet.
On Friday August 26, 7 pm &
Saturday Aug 27, 4 pm.
At INR 300.