Engaging the audiences

For Faezeh Jalali, the appreciation she has garnered for her last two plays, 07/07/07 and Shikhandi — The Story of the In-Betweens, has only spurred her on to set more challenges for herself. While the former won the Best Ensemble Award at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards in 2016, the latter was runner-up at the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards 2016. “One puts in a lot of hard work, so it feels good to be appreciated. I just wish the appreciation would translate into more funding for future plays,” she laughs. The actor-director shares her views on the kind of plays she likes to do and her future productions. 

ELIMINATE OR ACCUMULATE

For Faezeh, theatre is a lot about who she is and how she sees the world. “I think it’s important to have entertainment with some sort of social or political relevance. That’s not to say that I don’t want to do a farce or something that’s fun. I do, but I think there is a lot to explore, even if it’s something farcical,” she says. In her opinion, one has to engage the audience. Citing the example of 07/07/07, she says that while it is a dark topic, it is relevant to our times and is made entertaining with the use of techniques like chorus etc. “It has to be engaging for an audience to sit through for an-hour-and a-half, otherwise why would you want to come and feel sad for so long?” she says. 

Directing the kind of plays she does has been a learning process for Faezeh. “I watch a lot of plays and I learn from elimination. When I watch other works, they may not be my style, but they take me closer to what I think I would like to create,” she says. For instance, the actor-director watched Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s pieces while she was in London, but realised that his style is not something she would like to emulate. “It’s great writing and exciting on many levels, but not something I would like to do necessarily. On the other hand, circus performances, in a storytelling format, really excite me. I think I want to create something in this realm. So, there are times when you appreciate and eliminate, and at other times, you appreciate and accumulate,” she explains. 

PLAYTIME

While she is busy with a production for her alma mater till September, she plans to open her next play by November this year. “It’s called A Farming Story and it is written by Vineet Bhalla,” she reveals. The tale is about a small farming community living in a village bordering a vast forest, which is struggling to survive after successive droughts. Harsh winters have resulted in repeated crop failures. The villagers of this community are deeply in debt to the estate which owns the land they farm for their survival. When a group of refugees fleeing devastating forest fires arrive seeking refuge, the community is thrown into strife. “It explores selfishness as a central theme, and how this has led to environmental destruction, the inability to see “the bigger picture”, and the argument of “us” vs “them”,” adds Faezeh. 

Will she be acting in the play too? “No, I can’t direct myself. My USP is that I step in when any of my actors is unavailable,” she laughs, adding that she prefers to be able to look from outside for a clearer picture. The actor can currently be seen in Rajat Kapoor’s As You Like IT. I Don’t Like It.

07/07/07 will be staged on July 7 at 6 pm and 9 pm and Shikhandi will be staged on July 8 at 5 pm and 8 pm at Prithvi Theatre.