Writers’ Bloc Makes A Welcome Return

Kapur, Patel and da Cunha of Rage.

The Writer’s Bloc festival is back after a gap of five years. The theatre festival’s absence was keenly felt; it’s the only one that celebrates original Indian writing and the plays that make the cut are always interesting.  Organised by Mumbai-based theatre company Rage, run by director Rahul da Cunha and actors Shernaz Patel and Rajit Kapur, the productions staged during Writers’ Bloc are the outcome of workshops for which selected playwrights are sequestered at a residency in Vasind near Nashik and mentored by the members of London’s Royal Court Theatre.

Plays in Hindi, Marathi and English, by writers from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune, make up the 2012 edition of Writers’ Bloc, the previous editions of which were staged in 2004 and 2007. Promisingly, a number of plays hinge on social and political themes. This is significant as the one complaint that’s heard most often about original Indian writing is its lack of engagement with contemporary issues. For instance, Pereira’s Bakery on 76 Chapel Road, an English production written by Ayeesha Menon and directed by actor Zafar Karachiwala, is about a baker’s fight against builders who want to demolish the chawl he lives in to construct Asia’s largest shopping mall. The story is reminiscent of a 2008 incident where the residents of Pereirawadi, a gaonthan in Bandra’s Pali Village, were forcibly evicted under a bogus scheme of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority.

The displacement of tribals by mining industries is the subject of Akash Mohimen’s Hindi play Mahua, which will open the festival today, Monday, January 10, at the Prithvi Theatre. Sagar Deshmukh’s Shillak, in Marathi, is about the impact of the economic slowdown on a family; while Abhishek Majumdar’s The Djinns of Eidgah comments on the violence in Kashmir. The English drama is directed by Richard Twyman, a British director and Shakespeare specialist who has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court. But the play that theatregoers are no doubt most curious about is Siddharth Kumar’s Spunk (English). It’s about a man whose semen has special powers. So special that it could radically affect the lives of two women.

Writers’ Bloc will be staged at Prithvi Theatre from Monday, January 9 to Friday, January 20, and at the National Centre for the Performing Arts from Sunday, January 22 to Tuesday, January 31. See the schedule here and here.

Writers' Bloc

LocationPrithvi Theatre
20 Janki Kutir
Juhu Church Road
Juhu

Experimental Theatre
National Centre for the Performing Arts
NCPA Marg
Nariman Point

PhonePrithvi Theatre: 2614 9546; NCPA: 6622 3737

Relevant DatesMonday, January 9 to Tuesday, January 31