Stage brushes with technology in MMCC play Logging Out

At this year's Purushottam Karandak finale,one play sought to bring out the repercussions of human dependence on technology.

At this year’s Purushottam Karandak finale,one play sought to bring out the repercussions of human dependence on technology. Logging Out by Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s College of Commerce showcased two youngsters trying to work out a virtual relationship,conversing over online chats. The play was adjudged the third best of the competition,and bagged four individual awards.

The play relates the story of a girl who chats regularly with a male friend but refuses to meet him in real life in spite of him insisting on it. She is convinced that she likes him best only virtually. She gets even more involved in the online world when she discovers a software named ELIZA. She becomes acutely aware of her loneliness and lack of human contact when she is forced to share her house with her neighbours when their house floods. The writer of the play,Dharmakirti Sumant,met us and helped us understand the thoughts that went into it. The girl is shown to be very individualistic,while the boy is more socialistic in his point of view. We weren’t even aware of a software called ELIZA before we read the play, said Gaurav Pol,a second -year B Com student with MMCC,who acted and did the lighting for the play as well. The team behind Logging Out made some changes to the adaptation to add a more personal touch. The ultimate aim was to portray technology’s hold on our lives, Pol added.

Logging Out involved just three actors and employed some innovative props to stand out. The neighbours were shown as a shadow montage and not as real people. A middle partition on the stage made for the rooms of the girl and the boy,but they shared a common prop a mirror. In one scene,the boy is fumbling for a lighter to light his cigarette,but he doesn’t find one. Just at that moment,the girl lights a lighter in her room,and the mirror gives an illusion that it is for him, said Pol,who won the consolation prize in the Best Actor category.

Judges Verdict

Judge Nandu Madhav was impressed by the subject of Logging Out. They managed to bring out an issue very connected to today’s sensibilities, Madhav said. But the somewhat unidirectional approach to the idea of technology tilted the favour from them. The idea that technology disrupts human interaction is too simplistic. Technology can also bring people together,there is a great utilitarian value for it. The positive aspect of mediums like Facebook was missing in this narrative, he added.

Directors Cut

M Com student Abhiraj Mokate from MMCC directed Logging Out and describes the experience as a lot of fun but a big challenge. But the trust invested by the team in him helped him deliver and win the second prize for Best Direction. The job was trickier because the characters don’t speak directly to each other,and also because it is a charchatmak natak,where there is less emoting, Mokate said. He missed the winning play put up by MIT,but heard a lot of good opinion about it. They took up a sensitive issue and handled it very well,I have heard. What also struck me was that the dialogue-writer took almost two-three days sometimes to come up with the right words. When a good plot,sensitive direction and great acting come together,it ensures a prize-winning play, he said.

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