16 December,2020 09:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Sukanya Datta
The actors will take off from the audience's mystery and improvise a story around it through the phone calls
You know how we're always turning to books, web shows and films to look for that perfect, engaging mystery? Well, mysteries, old and new, exist in our everyday grind, too - in the ever-disappearing hair scrunchies, fruit cakes that never taste like mom's despite swearing by her recipe, and in the way parts of us chip away with time. It is these dull, humdrum whodunnits that city-based youth theatre movement Thespo is looking to decipher, with their participatory, improvised performance The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries, which is set to unfold over six phone calls.
Anoushka Zaveri, a member of Team Thespo, tells us that the week-long mystery adventure is part of their Double the Dramagiri digital festival, which includes a slew of workshops, plays, collaborations, hangout parties and readings put together by under-25-year-olds. The show has been created by Canadian artistes Sebastien Heins and Shannon Currie, who are part of a Toronto-based theatre company, Outside The March, and is supported by the Canadian consulate. "Theirs is one of the few collaborations we have with theatre-makers across the world. The concept evolved earlier this year when Heins was reinventing how storytelling could be taken to people's homes," Zaveri shares.
The plan is simple: you register and fill out a form that asks you for a few details including a curious mystery or puzzle from your life. "It can be any mysterious thing or event. For me, it was the case of the missing ghagra choli. For someone else, it can be the case of a kadvi chai. The focus is on mundane mysteries - objects, connections and co-incidences that you don't pay heed to," she explains.
In the "application to the ministry", one also has to pick a time-slot and over six days, four actors-turned-investigators will call the participant to get to know them better. "You flow with the calls. The actors will undertake several hours of research to engage you, improvise with you, and facilitate a connection with you even though we are so many miles away," Zaveri adds.
Anoushka Zaveri
Twelve to 13 young actors from across India and the world have been rehearsing with Currie and Heins for about a month. "But, you get to pick your story, and the actors then take you on an unthinkable adventure," she promises.
So, at the end of their performance, does the audience member get a closure? Zaveri asserts that while the mystery might be real, the story that is spinned around it is obviously fictional. "It might make you look at the mystery in a new light. Of course, your lost objects or connections won't come back to you, but they might take on a new meaning," she claims, reminding this writer of the equally wacky character of Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter who once said, "The things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end. If not always in the ways we expect." Good luck finding yours.
Sebastien Heins
On December 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21
Log on to insider.in to register by noon today
Cost Rs 200
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