In Two Minds

The play,Cock ,that first showed at the Prithvi Theatre on December 14 during the 13th Thespo Theatre Festival,was a success at two levels - it lived up to the original version written by English playwright Mike Bartlett,and also picked up awards for Outstanding Male and Female Actors.

Actor-director Manish Gandhi talks about his award-winning adaptation of English playwright Mike Bartlett’s play,Cock

The play,Cock ,that first showed at the Prithvi Theatre on December 14 during the 13th Thespo Theatre Festival,was a success at two levels – it lived up to the original version written by English playwright Mike Bartlett,and also picked up awards for Outstanding Male and Female Actors. Actor-director Manish Gandhi,who adapted the play for the festival,recalls that getting the rights from Bartlett to finding the right cast and crew,to the execution was a Herculean task. Our’s was the only English play that was selected from across the nation. And since the theme of the play deals with a mans sexuality,it was unconventional. We had to get it right in the first take itself, he says.

Gandhi says that he first came across the script in 2010,when he was researching for his diploma film project at the Film and Television Institute of India. Honestly,I wanted to use it to make a film on it, he confesses. Although later when I discussed it with my director,we figured it would be better off as a play.

Currently based in Mumbai,Gandhi applied for the Thespo Festival after he secured the backing of Clustalz Mumbai and ALLMYTEA Productions. We never expected to be shortlisted. But when we did,the long battle to obtain the rights began. At Thespo,we are not allowed to perform plays for which we do not hold the rights. What followed was a string of emails between him and Bartlett,explaining the nature and scope of the festival.

In the play,Gandhi plays the protagonist John,who after meeting W (a woman),goes on a break from his boyfriend,named M. John is torn,in a comical way though,when he realises that he is falling for W. The whole concept of confused sexuality does at some point reflect in the lives of people in cities. Both Prabal Panjabi,who plays M,and Asmita Bakshi,who plays W,were phenomenal.” Bakshi went on to win the Outstanding Actress award at the festival.

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Prithvi Theatre