The question of gender is intertwined with my work: Deepika Arwind

What’s common between a young boy who likes going to the gym, an old professor, an oppressed girlfriend and a cat? All of them depict how women deal with misogyny in their daily lives and they are all also one person — theatre actor-director-writer Deepika Arwind in her solo piece, No Rest in the Kingdom (NRITK). After 30-odd shows in New Delhi, Chennai, Puducherry and Sri Lanka in the past one year, the artiste from Bengaluru is bringing it to Mumbai for the first time, from April 13-15 at Tamaasha in Versova, Si Bambai in Kala Ghoda and Lady Baga in Lower Parel respectively.

Writing from her truth

Through her hour-long piece, Deepika addresses gender inequality and how women deal with it on a daily basis. “These are such regular things that you wouldn’t otherwise pay any attention to them. But, when you see them in isolation in the form of a performance, the light really shines on the absurdity,” she says. It wasn’t an epiphany or an incident that goaded her to create NRITK but accumulative moments. “The question of gender is intertwined with my work. If my work has to be authentic, then it has to come from my truth. The kind of literature and movies I consume is along the lines of gender — even if it’s not gender-conscious, I think from that perspective,” she says. Another reason for creating the play was that she wanted to write interesting women characters for theatre.

Saying it with humour

Deepika emphasises that though the topic is serious, the tone of NRITK is light. “Theatre is an experience and it requires a lot of compassion. Also, rather than talking at anybody, I personally like work that’s light,” she explains. About playing different characters, she says, “Each one has a separate body, spine, gestures, voice... a separate breath almost.” Interestingly, one of the characters is a perpetrator but she doesn’t see him as an offender. “I have to like all the characters, otherwise I’d seem as if I’m judging them,” she reasons.

An improvised script

Deepika tells us that NRITK was devised without a pre-existing script. She hit the rehearsal floor and started ‘mucking about’ and improvising to see what would come out of it. “My body was the instrument for this piece,” she says. Being the director and actor enables her to be in control of almost all aspects. However, on the flip side, she’s unable to see it from the ‘outside’, if it’s working out and how it can be made better. While she’s aware that just one play won’t change someone’s thought process overnight, the biggest achievement for her is when people come up to her and say that they felt something. Currently, Deepika is working on a children’s book, Sarayu and the Creature, with a French illustrator. She is also writing a play that tracks feminism through three women in past, present and future, alluding to the histories of oppression in a way. “It’s an ode to women in time, memory, feminist revolutions and female energy as a real thing,” she concludes.