Play Review: With Nothing On
I had an amazing start of the month as I got to witness a unique theatrical production. ‘With Nothing On’, staged at Veda Factory, was a presentation of 3 original monologues inspired by real stories. The performers Bhagyashree, Joyeeta and Simrat dug deep into themselves and got out stories that touched everyone deeply.
‘With Nothing On’ bares out the challenges and internal dilemmas the three women perfromers faced while growing up. Each story is unique and explores the issues of gender, body image and being accepted.
The style of all three performers is distinctive and offbeat.
Bhagyashree started the show in her humorous style, making the audience laugh out loud along the way. She has a special way of breaking the fourth wall and interacting with the audience, taking them by surprise and keeping them hooked throught her performance. In an almost stand-up comedy fashion, Bhagyashree narrated traumatic incidents from childhood with a smile. Her dark comedy targetted everyone from her notorious relatives, to troublesome ex-partners and even god himself!
The next was a dash of red in a mimed and improvised airplane created by Joyeeta. Her piece began with rhythmic movements and repetitions as she broke the silence with a charactertistic flight attendant voice. This plane journeyed from Joyeeta’s childhood to present day and flew past her experiences of being unsure and disliking her hairy body. Like all the other pieces, Joyeeta too combined the personal and the political, talking about issues troubling her individually as well as larger topics that continue to affect her daily life.
The last but certainly not the least, was the performance by Simrat. Simrat’s multi-lingual performance effortlessly switched between Punjabi, Hindi and English, keeping the audience guessing and on their toes. Set in her own bedroom, a 16 year old played by Simrat delt with the issue of gender identity and navigating one’s way in a society that pays little to no heed towards such topics. She talks about how the society expects one to dress and present oneself in a certain way whereas she feels most comfortable in “Kachha — baniyaan”. Simrat lets her hair do the talking as she makes a powerful point — just the poistion of her hair open or bunned up, placement of her bun changes the way people perceive her and her gender.
The play looks very promising and given that these are original stories, performed solo, one expects multiple changes and experiments from the perfromers. Only two shows have been staged so far and have received an amazing response. One expects the play to grow with time and have many fabulous shows going forward.
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Rochan Mathur is an actor & a drama facilitator based in Mumbai. He spends his time giving auditions in between getting bored and feeling lonely in a new city.