Absurdist comedy returns to Ranga Shankara

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

Imagine a Room is an absurdist comedy that unfolds in a land of no time and no name. Four people are in a secure room when a mysterious presence in the room starts to create ruptures in this “safe space”. “Our play challenges the idea of safety that makes people build walls and boundaries that leads us to segregate people.

I think safety is a comfort and privilege and stems from a lack of imagination,” says Vivek Vijayakumar, the director of Imagine a Room. The play stars Abhitej Gupta, Honey Raza, Kavya Srinivasan, Lakshman KP and Shrunga BV, who have been deeply involved in developing the play with the writers and director.

Describing their process Vivek says, “We meet at the studio at 7:30 and start with physical training, in the afternoon we have our meal and then begin working on devising the play which goes on to 7 in the evening. And we do this 6 days a week.” The devised play features four people who enter a room as a perceived safe space and a fifth person who challenges and disrupts their ideas of a safe space.

It’s a rare absurd comedy that challenges the notions of what we find acceptable in today’s society. And it was incredibly hard to put together. Kavya Srinivasan, who plays X, says, “My character is a disrupter who aims to change the status quo and I think of myself as that kind of person too. So I have enjoyed the process of finding the unexpected in this role.”

Imagine a Room returns to the Ranga Shankara stage after a break of nearly 5 months. It will be interesting to see how it has changed and evolved since then