A play based on a real life event in the early 20th century and structured with secondary material from newspaper reports, literary fictions and feature films on or in reference to the event. It was the last known cases of Smrutivicharam (trial on sexual morality according to Smruti – a Hindu custom to control women’s sexuality). Thathri, the protagonist, strategically subverted the customary provisions and brought the custodians of patriarchy under the law of their own making.

Director: J Shailaja

Based on Thode Ansu Thoda Phool, the autobiography of the legendary female impersonator Jayshankar Sundari. The play, designed around the works of eminent painters Bhupen Khakkar and Nilima Sheikh, traces his journey as an actor, from a boy to a man and simultaneously from a male to a female. The narrative, simultaneously, follows the history of company theatre in India in the first decades of the 20th century.

Director: Anuradha Kapur

Aaj Pyar Bandh (Love is Shut Today) is an adaptation by Atul Tiwari of Lysistrata, the 4th century BC Greek classic by Aristophanes. The bawdy political satire - of challenging the masculinity of the war mongers through a general sex strike by heterosexual women in demand for a peace treaty – had been a resource for peace campaigns and women’s emancipation through centuries. The Majlis production, where Lysistrata was played by Meenal Patel, was structured in reference to contemporary territorial violence.

Director: Madhusree Dutta