What’s up at Framroze Mansion?

A screengrab from the trailer of the Zoom play

Last year, amid the first lockdown, Mumbai-based theatre company Rage Productions collaborated with US-based EnActe Arts, and invited playwrights to write digital plays, reflecting the times we were living in. At the time, Rahul da Cunha, co-founder of Rage Productions, started toying with an idea he had always been obsessed with: that of ageing parents. Eventually, da Cunha submitted a script for the collaboration, and the play, Framroze Mansion, will be airing this weekend online.

Written by da Cunha and directed by Meherzad Patel, the virtual play revolves around a Parsi family, and will be staged just in time to celebrate Navroz. "I've always wanted to explore the idea of ageing parents, and how their children are often in different parts of the world. But there's always that one poor sibling who's in the same city as the parents, and has to tackle everything, while others give backseat instructions. All of us have been in this situation; I thought this was a great opportunity for a comedy," explains the playwright.

Rahul da Cunha

Framroze Mansion features actors Danesh Irani, Darius Shroff, Dilnaz Irani and Meher Acharia-Dar. The story is about a group of siblings spread out across the globe, with the youngest living in Mumbai, where their ageing ‘mumma' resides. "The show plays out over a few calls. The mother isn't keeping well and they're all wondering what she'll do about her will. And then she changes her will. The humour starts when the siblings all want to come rushing back to Mumbai, but the lockdown starts," da Cunha shares. So, the play follows the madness that unfolds in a bawa family, and also touches upon serious topics of old age, property and will in a light-hearted manner, he adds.

Framroze Mansion is one in a series of online plays that Rage Productions has been working on. da Cunha notes that Zoom plays are here to stay. "They're an interesting hybrid between theatre and film. You're writing for the camera to be very close. The medium also helps to make theatre accessible to a larger audience. So, even after we return to physical shows, I'd like to keep writing Zoom plays," he reveals.

On August 14 to 16, 6.30 pm
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Cost Rs 199