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Built around the humble roti, Durga Venkatesan’s award-winning performance explores the societal, economic and domestic contexts of womanhood in India
Durga Venkatesan performs a scene from the solo play. PICS COURTESY/DURGA VENKATESAN
For 26-year-old playwright and theatremaker Durga Venkatesan, the fear of not knowing how to make a round roti was real. “It is a conversation every woman my age has had, at some point in time,” she shares. This fear led her on a journey that forms the genesis of her performance, Garam Roti, at Prithvi Theatre today.
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“The idea was born in a workshop at the 2023 edition of Thespo. The crux was to formulate self-investigative stories based on our own truths,” Venkatesan shares. It sparked conversations with friends and acquaintances; women who had faced the same dreaded question at different times in their lives.
A QR code pamphlet of the Garam Roti library at the venue will allow visitors to listen to recorded oral accounts
“It slowly morphed into recordings and hour-long conversations with women across India speaking about their fears, their ideas of the roti and its role in their lives. These then diverged into larger conversations on womanhood, expectations, their place in society and how they navigate it — from women in the kitchen to women in social spheres. It was a collection of intersectional voices that shaped my performance,” she says.
Breaking barriers
These voices range from across class, caste, language and regional barriers. From Ambala, Haryana, Maharashtra to Delhi and Bengaluru, there are 23 CD recordings that inform her performance. Venkatesan will take to the stage with these voices as her co-performer. Yet, it is not that simple.
Covers of the CDs of the recordings collated by Venkatesan for the performance
“As an artiste, I did not want to snip out chunks from the conversations with the women to suit my narrative on stage. It was important to deliver the truth of these recordings. So, the women have been involved in their representation, from naming the recordings to how they are used,” she points out.
The Garam Roti library, as it is named, is also available for public listening. For every show, Venkatesan throws open the library to the audience to pick three CDs that she will perform with. In that sense, even the playwright is unaware of what voices will be part of her next set. “What you will hear in one show is completely different to the next. Moreover, since I am dealing with voices that are not my own, I did not want to control them,” she explains.
Diverse perspectives
Over the span of 2024, Venkatesan travelled, and had friends and volunteers travel to record these women. She suggests that the simple act of making a roti — an everyday experience across the country — can reveal complex societal practices, traditions and hierarchies. “In a polarised, divided world, where everyone on social media feels the need to share an opinion, this exercise gave me an opportunity to sit down and listen to different perspectives,” she admits.
Sudha Rani, one of the women who contributed to the growing collection of recordings
In September, Venkatesan did a rehearsed reading at Rangamadu in Bengaluru, before travelling to Thespo 2024 where it won the Pearl Padamsee Award for Outstanding Performer and Outstanding New Writing. “Garam Roti is an evolving performance,” she adds, “This is to say that it could be different a few years down the line. I will be a different person at 30 years than I am now, and the conversations I will find and come across will also vary and change with time.
A production member sets up the audio player on stage
The library itself is more than a theatrical tool. The Bengaluru-based Venkatesan intends to enlist volunteers, as they travel and record more voices. She adds that as the collection builds further, she would explore a larger purpose for the recordings. “I wanted to, and still want, to extend this conversation to women across all backgrounds. The next year will be about expanding this exploration,” she concludes.
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