Trident Directed by Venkatesan Vaidyanathan and Vishal Nair, the play will premiere in Bengaluru this weekend. Staged by MISF!T (My Interest Stays Firmly in Theatre), the play is a trilogy, says Venkatesan over a call from Koramangala during rehearsals.
Trident Venkatesan says it is a multi-genre drama. “It is set in three time frames – 1940, 1980 and 2010 – and is connected by a single thread. The first story is a period comedy, the second is a tragicomedy and the third is a black comedy.”
Venkatesan has been involved in theatre since his school days. “Vishal is also a serious theatre artiste and both of us have worked with Ratan for around 18 years.”
Venkatesan Vaidyanathan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The first story centres around a young girl whose life changes drastically during Partition, the second story focuses on the turbulent relationship between a couple and deals with the concerns of the time (patriarchy, regressive ideas and identity fixation), while the third story is set in an office and highlights office politics, power struggles and societal pressures on career and personal growth.
Venkatesan, who is part of MISF!T, gives credit to its founder, the late Ratan Thakore Grant. “Ratan was a theatre personality who amazed audiences as an actor, choreographer, writer, director and teacher. He believed that with proper guidance, anyone can act and to implement this, he started MISF!T in 2001.”
Venkatesan says Grant began by conducting acting workshops. “He staged original plays. Over time, he taught thousands of people. Original content is what MISF!T is all about. We believe our country’s culture is rich and diverse, with so many stories to tell, which can inspire us to write original plays rather than rewriting pre-written Western plays.”
MISF!T is now managed by Grant’s students, including Venkatesan and Vishal. “We manage the studio and also conduct acting programmes and plays. All the actors contribute to creating the story, script and direction. We have theatre artistes from the age of 16 to 62.”
Vishal Nair | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
First Trident, Studio staged Connectologs V3.0. “The play that Ratan created had an interesting concept. It was an original play.”
The cast and crew for this Trident says Venkatesan No. 16. “We are all working professionals who meet after a day’s job and rehearse in the evening. We had to give up our original studio space, so now we either rent a place or meet at a member’s home for rehearsals.”
Trident It will feature Sumeet Sirohi, Roupya Viraktamath, Ujani Ghosh, Aadarsh Shri Ram, Abhinav Singh Akash, Tapas Agrawal, Eve, Akhil Parameswaran, Yash Agrawal, Ashish Verma, Kshema Shetty, Manjunath Gowda, Hrishita Brahma, Kavya K Subramanya, Gomathi Ravindran, Nazar Abul Hasan.
It will be staged on June 22 at Prabhat KEA Rangamandir Auditorium at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm. Tickets are available on BookMyShow.
