Nonsense, sensibly

Anuskha Ravishankar on the dynamics of penning a play.

Theatre tests Anushka Ravishankar. Her latest work Coat Tales to be staged in Delhi this month, directed by Australian Pauline Furlong, is no different. Anushka digs deep into the mine of Indian folk tales, picks out stories, shoves away the barricades set by language and stitches them well.

The Chennai-based author of children's books, poet and playwright, tries to tweak theatre techniques with her new work. Of course, the writer known for her penchant for “nonsense” has not abandoned it in “Coat Tales.”

“The play has bits that are nonsensical,” says Anushka in a telephone chat from Chennai.

Even when she sieved out tales she wanted to tell from the “Panchatantra”, Tamil folk tales and the nautanki tradition, she played with them, pecked at the seams and gave them new sheen and twists. “Coat Tales” seamlessly blends five folk tales and Anushka says folk stories with their inherent character posed a few challenges for the playwright. “When you learn in the Aristotelian structure of plays with exposition, climax and denouement, suddenly you realise it doesn't work with folk tales as they are basically quest tales and often do not have a conflict,” she says.

Full report here Hindu