Head to this interactive theatre play at Harkat Studios in Versova

Manjari Kaul, seen in this still from the play, says that the letters flying in the air represent the freedom and joy the prisoners feel when they receive letters, despite the delay and censorship

For Manjari Kaul, queer feminist performer and director, even small things, like laughter, can be acts of resistance. Dramaturg Nisha Abdulla, on the other hand, says hope is a form of resistance. We are talking about the play Firefly Women, which Kaul directs and performs in with co-artiste Deepika Chauhan, and which Abdulla helped envision. It is in the city after a successful stint nationally and globally.

The play was first recorded as a solo digital show in several episodes, based on the letters that student activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita wrote while they were in jail. In 2022, Kaul began working on the first physical edition of the show, a duet, with Abdulla, sifting through the letters and transforming them into an episodic narrative.

Narwal and Kalita, activists from Delhi-based women's collective Pinjra Tod, were arrested after participating in an anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protest in Delhi in 2020. The two spent over a year in and out of jail, during which they wrote many letters to the members of Pinjra Tod and their friends and families - which often took months to deliver after passing through walls of censorship. These letters, which are the base for the play, talk about hope in dark times, comfort within confinement, and finding a new kind of feminist utopia within the prison walls.

"The letters straddle a wide range of subjects," says Abdulla. "There are specific moments in history that they refer to, such as prisoners writing letters during the freedom struggle; camaraderie and companionship in the women's prison; and how political prisoners, especially working-class women, experience life within jail. Sometimes, the constraints that are placed on their lives outside are similar to what they experience in prison."

The performers don't play a character - neither that of Narwal or Kalita. Instead, they embody a visceral response to the emotions and words conveyed in their letters. Kaul, who was part of the protests herself, says this is her attempt to understand what those long days in prison felt like for them. Chauhan, an actor,
performer, and theatre faculty, says that it was initially intimidating to take on the words of the activists. But working with Kaul helped her find her own "moments of truth and connection".

"We took so many rights for granted, growing up," Abdulla muses. "We can't take them for granted anymore." While the topic seems heavy, there is humour interspersed through it. The audience learns that it's okay to smile in the face of danger, and that laughter can be an act of resistance.

Nisha Abdulla and Deepika Chauhan

The show comes to Mumbai after being performed in Berlin, Leipzig, Delhi, Goa, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Puducherry, and Chennai. The Delhi-based theatre facilitator, whose work revolves around the themes of gender, sexuality, and memory, says it is a different experience with every audience.

"There is no beginning, middle, or end; the audience goes through a journey with us," Kaul says. "The attempt is to find meaning together." Each show is co-created with the audience; it is not a passive experience. The sense of creating something together, she adds, is required as the audience and performer become one, participating in this act of resistance and solidarity together.

The title comes from a line in the letters when all the inmates in the jail, including the incarcerated women's children, come together to celebrate the sighting of a rainbow. "And now, we wait for a firefly," Kaul recites. "A firefly may not be a blazing flame. But it is a glimmer of hope."

WHAT: Firefly Women - Interactive theatre play
WHEN: March 30 and 31, 7.30 PM to 9 PM
WHERE: Harkat Studios, Versova
PRICE: Rs 400 onwards
TO BOOK: insider.in