What She Said, to be held in Bengaluru, is a retelling of Ramayana from a woman’s perspective

It is quite symbolic to see a play by a female cast directed by a female playwright on International Women’s Day.

Written and directed by Gauri Ramnarayan, what did he say Provides voices to six lesser-known female characters RamayanaAnd presents their story from a unique perspective.

Gauri says that all these stories are told from the male perspective. “I wanted to write my own story, where I give voice to female characters like Urmila, Manthara, Surpanakha, Tara, Mandodari and Shanta, who are otherwise known only as someone’s wife or daughter and who are second only to Sita in the entire story.”

“I wanted to talk about the women in these stories and their struggles for survival,” she says.

Produced by JustUS Repertory, the play features three actors, Sunanda Raghunathan, Akhila Ramnarayan and Arabi Veeraraghavan, playing six roles. The monologues, which are in English, will be accompanied by live singing by Srividya Vadlamani, joining the next character.

She says, when Gauri started writing the play, she realized the women in it Ramayana Are quite contemporary. “They live among us. They go through the nuances of life experiences, the blood, sweat and tears every woman goes through. They face gender discrimination, betrayal and injustice. I wanted to portray these women through this lens,” she says.

a scene from a play what did he say. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Gauri has chosen women from three different states. “There’s the Kishkindha Kingdom, the Ayodhya-Kosala Kingdom and the Ravana Empire. From there, it became a gender-based story about women belonging to different social strata.”

whether what did he say Once performed for small audiences in Bengaluru, this time it is being staged on a larger scale. After its premiere in Chennai in 2019, the pandemic halted performances of the play in other cities, which the playwright now wants to rectify.

Gauri believes that there is great benefit in using mythology to talk about modern times. “Everyone knows the story, so we don’t have to start from the beginning. Always treated as an idealistic straightforward narrative, Ramayana Now it can be presented to the audience with many complexities and ambiguities.

How can one compose an entire monologue about Shanta, Dasharatha’s lesser known daughter and Ram’s elder sister? Gauri says this is the fun part. “Shanta was given up for adoption because Dasharatha wanted a son. Her adoptive father later married her to a sage. Since I didn’t have much information about her, it gave me an opportunity to be creative.”

what did he say It will be staged at Bengaluru International Center on March 8 at 7 pm. RSVP at website.