A dramatised reading of a translated German play portrays the relationship between a man and woman, told through the eyes of their canine companion
(From left) Abhinav Grover, Dheer Hira, Chitransh Pawar and Nisha Dhar rehearse
If you spend a considerable amount of time with animals, it's likely that you have wondered how your pet dog or the cat you feed in your building perceive your world, just as you try to make sense of theirs.
German writer Sybille Berg's canine character in her play, Hund, Frau, Mann (or Dog, Man, Woman) tends to think, "We dogs and human beings are alike in many ways. We deal with catastrophes similarly: we accept them."
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Inspired by the story Pure Love by Yael Hedaya, the play revolves around the strange relationship between a man and a woman, who despite not getting along after a brief period of mutual love, remain bound to each other because friction still triumphs over loneliness.
Abhinav Grover
A dramatised reading of the translated play, directed by Abhinav Grover, will be staged this Sunday under Das Schauspiel. This collaboration between Goethe-Institut Mumbai and Tamaasha Theatre is a curated bi-monthly programme where directors in collaboration with actors, musicians and designers explore contemporary German plays, under the guidance of theatre-director Sunil Shanbag.
"The play starts in flashback with an otherwise quiet dog biting an old woman's ear off. The audience then gets introduced to the characters through monologues. An acquaintance sets up the man and woman, who have been through relationships and have been single for a while. And when they decide to live together, they also take with them a dog they spot on the street as a good deed of the day," says Grover. He felt that because the play is quite urban, a proper Hindi translation wouldn't work and he adapted the script to a mix of Hindi and English.
A black comedy, the dog is shown to be an intellectual being that reads Muktibodh and Camus, and when the love between his fellow residents turns possessive and closeness is replaced by mistrust, it likens the bond between them to a taut leash. Enslavement, after all, isn't the misfortune of animals alone.
ON: November 25, 7 pm
AT: Studio Tamaasha, Versova, Andheri West.
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ENTRY: Rs 100
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