[ad_1]

A scene ftom the play To Be Or Not To Be.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRAGEMENT
Organizational Theatre is back with To Be Or Not To Be, a play that uses Shakespeare’s famed soliloquy from the play Hamlet as a thematic frame,directed by Ranji David, at ADA Ranga Mandira in Bengaluru on February 16.
The play, according to the synopsis by the team, follows the story of three characters caught in a large city, their dreams, aspirations and desires, along with the people in a city who are constantly running a meaningless rat race. The play is developed based on true life stories that have emerged from the actors during devising.
Directed by Ranji David, the first story the play traces the life of a young girl, who at a very young age begins to explore the identity of a male. She slowly begins her inner journey towards changing her gender completely. To be a man or to be a woman is her turmoil. The second story is of a woman who is caught in the corporate world. Her first experience is a sour one, a manager who is more focused on her than the tasks at hand. As she moves from office to office she realises the challenges are many. To be in the corporate world or not to be in the corporate world is her inner dilemma.

I picked up the situations and circumstances of the play Hamlet and asked the actors to improvise on it, said director Ranji David.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRAGEMENT
The third story is of several parents whose children have now settled outside India, many of whom do not even come back for the final rites of the parents. Will the children ever realise the true situations of their parents back home, is what the play explores.
Speaking to The Hindu, Ranji David said that the play was based on true events that have occurred in the lives of the actors in the play. “I specialise in devised theatre and implement it most of my plays. I picked up situations and circumstances of the play Hamlet and asked the actors to improvise on it. Devised theatre allows actors to share their personal stories, and as soon as we started rehearsing I broke the team into groups and asked them to devise something based on a situation in their lives that has been transformational. I began to see a pattern in their stories. The first set of stories that we are performing is based on an actor who was assigned gender as female and over a period she transitioned to a male. I realised this story would push the audience toward ‘To be or not be,” he explained.
“We started working on the play last year, and it took us close to six months to devise the whole production. The first set of shows were based on stories of actors from then, but this time we have a new team performing. I have auditioned actors from different theatre groups making sure the essence of the first few shows were retained, and in fact we have gone deeper into the stories,” David said.
The theatre production consists of 30 actors and eleven members in the tech crew, including assistant directors Luvena Rangel and Sanjay Singh, light execution by Aditya Kulkarni, music execution by Sandhya Rajendran, props and masks by Arjun M., costume design by Almas Kotadia, sceneography by Anand kumar and projections by Rasheed Kappan
The play is at 12 noon and tickets are is priced at ₹375 at ADA. Ranga Mandira box office and on BookMyShow.
Published – February 14, 2025 09:00 am IST
[ad_2]
IThe Hindu


