A slice of Hyderabadi theatre in Mumbai

Padma Shri Mohammad Ali Baig, director, Spaces;

Hyderabad-based Qadir Ali Baig Foundation, will present their play Spaces that opened in London and then Istanbul, earlier this year. The 90-minute play (without interval) is set in a once-grandiose haveli in Hyderabad.

Aziza (played by Noor Baig), an artiste is struggling to preserve her identity and cherished heritage against the modernising world. The plot highlights a conflict of traditional and the modern between her and her Chicago-based fiance. Javed (played by Mohammad Ali Baig) software professional.

(Above) Padma Shri Mohammad Ali Baig, director, Spaces; (below) A still from the play

Aziza is up against almost everyone around her, having to face the tough choice of whether to hold on to her precious childhood memories or give up, let go and move on. Written by Mohammad Ali Baig along with his wife Noor Baig, the story poses a question that often arises in urban society globally: does ‘home' really mean the four walls of a house or the ‘space' within us?

Baig is the lone Asian theatre personality to have been accorded two retrospectives in London and Istanbul, with this production. India's youngest Padma Shri recipient in theatre at the age of 39, Baig, also recieved the French Honour in Paris and Award for Global Excellence in Theatre in Toronto. The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation, based in Hyderabad, and dedicated to the memory of his father, is now in its tenth year.

On: Today, 7 pm
At: Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point.
Call: 66223737