Theatre of Terror

Khan began working on his script on December 18 “after enough time to avoid a knee-jerk reaction”. “The first scene came easily — a young boy wants new clothes for Eid,” says Khan. The play does not name Kasab, the only survivor among the terrorists, but viewers will recognise the antihero who runs away from home and, after a few petty crimes, joins the terrorists. Theatre workshops with students will resume on January 5 and the play will be staged at the end of January. “I want to tell the audience that there is nothing called Islamist terror. There are only terrorist groups who turn misguided youngsters towards the gun,” says Khan.

Jain would agree. He created his trilogy when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001. As he followed the Mumbai attacks on TV, he knew he had to bring the plays back on the stage. “The roots of terrorism are deeply communal, but it isn’t one particular religion,” he says. Fragrance is presented as an installation art in which the protagonist finds himself in a huge circle surrounded by several objects. “He wants to break the objects that don’t conform to his beliefs. He sweats and strains, pulls and hammers and when he finally breaks an objects, he is surprised to find it contains only fresh petals,” he explains. Blood on the Rocks unfolds amid colours like saffron, red, green and blue and unites themes of faith and gun power. The Mirror ends with every spectator being gifted a mirror “with a message that says ‘You are so beautiful’”.

Khalsa College students, on the other hand, are less hopeful. The play Aaj Bhi Kal Ke Jaisa Kyun Hai, as the name suggests, deals with apathy. “It talked about a series of violent events, from Partition days to the Delhi blasts,” says director Udit Mukim. And even as they were picking up awards at college fests, the Mumbai attacks took place, forcing them to add another chapter to the 26-minute-long play. The new scene shows a packed discotheque where loud music stops to announce the attacks at CST. “For a second, everybody stops dancing but only for a second. The music begins again and the dancing resumes,” says Mukim.

Atelier Theatre, however, considers the terror attacks that marked 2008 as manifestations of larger social disintegration. “When I started writing my new play Seema, it was to supposed to be about a couple in a troubled relationship. Somewhere along the way, the elements of terror began to creep in. The central protagonist is a theatre director who is staging a play on terrorism even as his home falls apart,” says director Kuljeet Singh. The group will start rehearsing in January and the play in scheduled for March. “There is so much violence in our lives now that even things we cherish are developing cracks,” he adds.