Unshedding the blame, one outfit at a time

Mallika Taneja in a former staging of Thoda Dhyaan Se

Is A woman's liberation determined by the clothes she wears or those that she doesn't? Does a woman perpetrate sexual violence because of how much she shields, or how much she exposes? Delhi-based theatre artiste Mallika Taneja will reflect upon these troubling questions, in an hour-long monologue, titled Thoda Dhyaan Se.

The hour-long solo act will see a semi-nude Taneja walk onto the stage, before she begins piling on clothes one at a time - 50 pieces totally - while having an open conversation with her audience.

Taneja's satire, which has been staged at various venues in India as well as Paris and London, has garnered a lot of attention - it won the ZKB Acknowledgement Prize at the Zurich Theatre Festival - for its reactionary and bold arguments. "It was purely instinctive," says Taneja of how she developed her piece. But, it actually stemmed from this conversation that people have when a woman is sexually violated.

"The first question that's asked is ‘what was she wearing?' When you start analysing the worth of that question, you realise how absurd it is that people try to put the blame on something like clothes for what's wrong with our society.
It was about embodying that question's absurdity and bring to focus how untrue that statement is," adds Taneja. By the end of the performance, the person on stage, who is now layered in clothing, becomes barely recognisable. "It's a reflection of the bundle of advice that women carry along with them all the time," says Taneja. "Freedom has nothing to do with clothing. It's about how free you are in your mind, and how far you are from being trapped by whatever society forces upon you."

Thoda Dhyaan Se will be performed at multiple venues from September 29 to October 2. To book a seat, email: keepyourhelmeton@gmail.com