To be or not to be

Rasika Agashe’s Museum… of Species in Danger consists of monologues by women and is one of the director’s first attempts at ‘protest theatre’

When playwright-director Rasika Agashe penned Museum… of Species in Danger, a woman-centric play, she ran the risk of it being passed off as “another feminist play”. But the play wasn’t intended to be a mouth-piece for feminism, nor was it seeking to meet misandrous ends. “It is against mardaangi (masculinity),” reveals the National School of Drama graduate. The play was staged on February 1 at Indulakshmi Auditorium in St. Mira’s College, Pune, concluding its academic seminar “The Politics of Power”.
Agashe was deeply affected by the December 16 Delhi gang rape. “I was upset and furious and above all felt helpless,” shares Agashe, elaborating, “I did not know what to do. I participated in candle light marches, but it brought me no solace. I could only express through theatre and made it my vehicle of protest. I called up my actor and dancer friends and we began work on Museum….” With this play she begins her foray into “protest theatre”.
“I had a few literary works in mind when I started out with the script,” says Agashe, elucidating, “For instance, the various versions of the Ramayana. There is an interesting South Indian version according to which Sita does not concede to an agnipariksha (a test of purity by fire) and opts to enter Ravana’s sacred pyre instead. We built on that, thereby giving birth to our first monologue,” adds Agashe. The progression to Surpanakha’s monologue occurred naturally after Sita’s. Draupadi, again, has been the subject of many plays and has been depicted on stage in several ways. “So, while working with her, we chose a particular night in her life when she forgets which of her five husbands is visiting her chamber,” she says. At this juncture, Agashe shares, that when the idea of writing a play on rape first occurred to her, she found that “its roots penetrate deep into our culture, traditions, mythology and our obsession with virginity.”
All in all, the play consists of 12 monologues, a fraction of which is inspired by mythology. There are others too, which are based on real-life events. “We have a section called When I Realise I’m a Woman, which has been greatly inspired by the literary works of writers Tehmina Durrani and Dharmaveer Bharati,” says Agashe, adding “Under this section we touch upon several stages in a woman’s life when she comes face to face with her sexuality. Another section has actors playing out the lives of survivors on stage, culminating into them and sharing their own encounters with abuse.”
This play isn’t only a work of art for Agashe, who says, “This play is a museum of the nuances of womanhood. The process brought about a lot of change within me. Rapes, acid-attacks and other atrocities constantly force me to be conscious of my sexuality. I feel we aren’t treated as women any longer, but as ‘females’. There is more to me than those two and a half inches of flesh on my body.”