This dramatic storytelling show at a Versova venue brings the audience to two gates of time and shows them what lies beyond it
Kenneth Desai in a moment from the play. Pic Courtesy/X
In Ted Chiang’s 2007 novelette, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, a fabric merchant from medieval Baghdad, Fuwaad ibn Abbas, walks into a new establishment “to peruse its wares”. On entering, he’s taken by an alchemist-owner, Bashaarat, to a gate called the Gate of Years, which can take one into the future. The shop owner narrates stories about those who’ve seen their future selves. Among them are a rope-maker Hassan, his wife Raniya, and a weaver named Ajib. The knowledge of another gate far away in Cairo, which takes people back into the past, tempts a guilt-ridden Abbas to set foot on an adventure and make amends with his late wife. What choices does he end up making?
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Through a stage adaptation, one of the city’s most established theatre groups, Motley Productions, will put together a dramatic storytelling show on Friday called The Gate of Years in a Versova studio. The adaptation will depict Chiang’s story in a new light, with Kenneth Desai taking on the role of the lead storyteller. The show will be performed in English. For Desai, the need to unearth the story arose from its sense of completeness. “It has everything from adventure, fantasy and humour, to a touch of sensuality, and a lovely moral at the end. What more can a story offer? Sometimes, you just connect with a piece; it resonates with you,” he tells us.
The Gate of Years opens up into the future and the past. Pic Courtesy/Veda Factory
He had come across the narrative during the pandemic when his wife, an avid reader, recommended the book to him. Since then, he had been memorising the lines. “But my memory is not what it used to be. When the lockdown ended, I had to relearn the piece,” he shares. He decided to keep the show minimal, without much music and backdrop — just a storyteller on stage, taking the readers back to an interesting time and milieu. “Nothing can compare to the audience’s own imagination. If that gets popped, then the work is done. That’s the attempt: to give them that little spark, so that their minds take over.”
Desai believes in the power of Chiang’s narrative that delves into ideas of free will. “It is a modern take on time, a what if situation — what if the future was fixed?”
He feels that the audience will leave the hall with an enjoyable tale with much to ponder upon.
On June 7; 7.30 pm onwards
At Veda Black Box, Veda Factory, Aram Nagar Part 2, Versova, Andheri West.
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Cost Rs 300
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