Nuanced Storytelling To Better Representation: How Women Playwrights Stand Out

For a long time, theatre has been a means to interact at a community level and be an artform that mixes with social activism. The origin of Indian theatre can be traced back to the First Century BCE, but female representation only started in the 20th Century. Feminist theatre started in the 1970s to subvert the male-dominated discourses in regional theatres.

Women participating in theatre developed a gender consciousness to stand against the regressive themes and stereotypical representations of women in male-centric theatre spaces. The 21st Century has seen an increase in women playwrights and directors, but there is still a mega shift to happen, say some renowned women in theatre. Here is what women playwrights have to say:

Irawati Karnik

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Platoon One Films (@platoononefilms)

Irawati Karnik, a playwright based out of Mumbai, started writing plays in the third grade. “My father used to publish two magazines, so I wrote a play for them. Instead of writing in narrative, I thought in dialogues. Thinking in people’s voices came naturally to me,” she said.

When she went to boarding school, she was not used to speaking in English. However, the presence of Hindi theatre there felt hugely comforting and transformative to her.

She remembers going to watch experimental Marathi plays by the Avishkar theatre group led by Chetan Datar, Satyadev Dubey, and Chandrakant Kulkarni. “Kulkarni’s eight-hour-long trilogy play, Wada Chirebandi was a revolutionary watch. It was a powerful experience to sit through the length of the play,” said Karnik.

She soon joined Sir J.J School of Art for a degree in fine arts. During an inter-collegiate theatre competition, she caught the attention of Datar, who invited her to be a part of Avishkar. Earlier, the world of theatre was only a hobby for her, but its thought-provoking nature made it into a full-time job.

But something was amiss. Women mainly played roles in plays and had no control over the scripting and direction. “It was no fun being a minority. Male voices were highlighted and the rest of the gender spectrum was sidelined,” she said. “Male directors appropriating women’s stories is common, if not by other women, how will these stories be told authentically?”

Women playwrights have the sensitivity to depict female characters with more depth. “Including women as playwrights in teams can make the work more versatile and show diverse perspectives,” said Karnik. “It is important for women to be in positions of power to have agency over their craft.”

Fortunately, she said that over the last 10 years, there has been a substantial increase in representation in theatre, however there is an inherent sexism and chauvinism where not just the theatre industry, but other industries have been boy’s clubs. “Women still have to prove their worth and mettle. But we live in a time where art speaks for itself and we share a bigger share in narrative shaping.”

Karnik has till date only collaborated with men, and craves to work with women in the future.

Sneh Sapru

Sneh Sapru started her writing career in the advertising industry which she believes was a toxic and predatory environment, however entering the world of playwriting brought its own slew of issues.

Sapru had never planned her arrival in theatre, it was a serendipitous call where she was at the right place, at the right time. “I was writing an experimental action film’s story for a producer, when he mentioned that his friend working in theatre had a few concepts she wanted to explore. I met her and discussed the ideas she had, and told her I was elated about one of them and began working on it,” she said. It took the form of ‘Elephant In The Room’, a solo performance about the whimsical adventures of a young boy in search of his missing head which has gained worldwide acclaim.

She said that the two pieces she has written were helmed by a female crew that cater to the female gaze. “The atmosphere was still competitive, cut-throat and unforgiving in an all-female team as well. Although, it is a welcome relief that the environment is not sexually charged as when projects were headed by a particular breed of sleazy men. Now that the environment is less predatory, everyone across the gender spectrum has a chance to focus on what they came to do—tell an original story,” she said.

Sapru believes that it is not an equal world, but she hopes newer and bolder voices emerge from this change in status quo. “What matters the most irrespective of gender is to have an empathetic worldview,” she noted.

Don't miss:India Ranks 123 On Inequality Index, Moves Up By 6 Places

Indira Dangi

When Indira Dangi was a little kid, her uncle used to run a cinema hall called ‘Indira Videos’ where when films were not run on the big screen, there were recordings of plays being shown. After the business closed down, hundreds of such recordings from across the world landed up in their house which made the five-year-old Dangi garner an interest in theatre.

This passion in theatre made her want to pursue a career in it. And nowadays, she feels like pursuing a post doctorate in literature focusing on folk drama.

In her experience, she feels that women playwrights do a better job in representing women characters. “This is because men are not able to get out of the usual prejudices that have been conditioned in their personal lives since childhood,” she said. “An example given in literature is that when men write about rape, they portray women as ‘abla naaris’ (damsels in distress) who have lost their pride and destroyed their future, but when women write the same character she shows rape like any other crime committed such as kidnapping or theft.”

She added that women writers display how the incident can be overcome and a life can be started afresh.

Don't miss:59% Of Working Women Rely On Patriarchs To Take Financial Decisions

Faezah Jalali

Both her home and school environment propelled her to start writing for plays. “Me and my sisters used to enact plays at home. We used to create makeshift tents and enact roles. I played the father who went hunting. Creating your own set and costumes was exhilarating,” said Faezah Jalali.

In school, she used to participate in plays as well and was fortunate to have a principal who encouraged creativity and extra-curriculars. The joy of performing and being on stage started from an early age which eventually led her to directing and writing for plays.

She was in a programme in Germany when she devised the play, ‘Shikhandi’ as a one-person story, and revisited the play in 2014 as a fully-formed script written in verse after a breakup which made her turn to poetry to heal her broken heart.

A turning point in her life came when she began realising the socio-cultural relatability that plays should hold. “While in the States, a Russian professor of mine told me that I came from two rich cultures—Indian and Iranian, and that struck a chord in me,” she said. “Telling stories that feel a part of you connect better with both the audience and yourself.”

She said that personally she feels that as a woman she has to do something amazing each time. “The struggle begins again for women each time they try to produce a play and they have to work doubly hard as people think more critically about them, whereas men playwrights can get away with doing mediocre work which is forgiven, and still get producers and sponsors flocking around them and funding their plays.”

Moreover, when she writes she feels that she keeps her writing gender-fluid. “I try not to write character names and gauge what kind of voice comes out,” she said.

She feels that higher up the hierarchy, the gender representation falls out. There are still more women actresses and performers, than there are women directors and playwrights.

Jalali exclaims that she always wonders why women playwrights get asked questions about their gender, while men get away with not being asked gender-related queries and why it matters while casting a character. “I asked a male director whether he had ever got interviewed about how it was to direct a play with woman characters, and he replied that it never happened to him. I feel I would definitely be asked this kind of question.”

Also Watch: