17 April,2009 08:10 AM IST | | Kavitha K
Young professionals come together to stage The Cube, a play that questions the use of animals in
drug trials
Ajesh Kumar S, poet, painter and playwright, is so incensed by the use of animals in drug/cosmetic trials that he scripted The Cube Watch it Live, an hour-long play that will premier at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore on April 22, Earth Day.
"I worked on the script for 6 years," confesses the 31-year-old Chitrakala Parishat graduate, tugging meditatively at his earstuds. "The idea simmered in my head even when I was busy painting and teaching art to school kids in Bangkok," he adds.u00a0
Three months ago, he returned to Bangalore with a seven-page script, which he gave to Sowgath Ahmed, actor, theatreperson, singer, dancer, and above all, his best buddy. The two then reconnected with some of their former theatre pals, invited them to readings and were ready to roll.
If that sounds like a fairytale beginning, listen to what 25-year-old Venkataraghavan Srinivasan, who plays the 'soul' has to say.
u00a0"I went for the reading because a close friend asked me to go. I went without any expectations because Ajesh never had a history of writing scripts! But when I read this one, I was blown away. I am an advertising professional. I know good scripts from bad ones. When I read this one, I knew I had to act in it, in whatever bit role they'd give me," he says.
The 10-member cast, including four dancers, was soon in place and workshops on movement, music and dialogue got underway. The sets have been kept to a bare minimum. The backdrop, painted by Ajesh, will be the only dramatic prop and the cube, or the cage, which houses the protagonist who volunteers to swap places with a lab animal, will be represented by the creative use of lighting.
Poignant and powerful
The play unfolds when Raju and Meera (Pushpa V Murthy), a young and very-much-in-love couple, protest clinical trials that use animals.
Raju, played by both Sowgath Ahmed and Sandip Kumar, swaps places with the lab animal and meets an agonizing end, but does his death change anything? And what happens to his unfinished love story?u00a0
"My play ends on a positive note. My solution may be extreme but as a young and spirited artiste, I am hopeful that change will come when more young people start thinking about issues like the ethics of clinical trials," says Ajesh.u00a0
What: The Cube Watch it Live
When: On April 22, 23 at 7 pm
Where: Alliance Francaise. Tickets available at venue.
