Fifty Shades of Play

With Gopal Sharman directing the play,also titled 50 Shades of Grey,the 80-minute performance will have three characters — Kritika Pande as Steele,Nisa Shetty as Steele’s alter ego (referred to in the book as ‘the Inner Goddess’) and Raghav Shankar as Grey. The music mentioned in the book,especially the tunes that Grey plays on the piano,has also been used in the play. “I’m not very fond of the opera Lakmé but we’ve used it in the play,along with other contemporary scores,” says Vaidya,adding that she has crunched the whole book into a play format,which will be performed along with select passages from the book being read out loud by Vaidya herself.

So was it difficult to dramatise the erotic parts of the novel? “We obviously can’t show all the nudity and ‘The Red Room of Pain’ mentioned in the book on stage,” she explains,adding,“Hence,we’ve decided to read out those bits. There is one long scene where Anastasia goes inside Grey’s ‘playroom’ for the first time. That part will be read out,with our actors posing in flashing lights on the dimly lit stage. Since the book is explicit,the viewers will see only flashes of the actors moving in fluid,dance-like movements.”

Vaidya doesn’t seem to be worried about the disapproval that might result from staging the performance. “I have done book readings and plays based on controversial and erotic works before. Besides,Indian culture has always had had the legacy of titillation,” she says firmly ,adding “I’m expecting a great turnout.”

50 Shades of Grey will be staged from August 24 to 26 at Akshara Theatre,Baba Kharak Singh Marg. Audience members must be over 18 years of age.

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