Samragni Dasgupta on ‘Earthquake’ to be staged through October and November in Bengaluru

Earthquake, which will be staged in English, Hindi, and Kannada is an exploration of human connection, loneliness and the unspoken words that linger in between 

The Ennui Collective will stage the play, Earthquake, performed by Yamuna Kali and Naman Roy. “It is an exploration of human connection, loneliness and the unspoken words that linger in between,” says Samragni Dasgupta, who has co-written the play with Marvin Krause.

The Bengaluru-based theatre practitioner says, “Earthquake is an adaptation of a play that I wrote with Marvin, called Bhūmikampa – Das Erdbeben, both of which mean earthquake in Bengali and German, respectively.”

Initially working independently, Samragni and Marvin later received a grant from the International Cultural Projects from The Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich to work on it together. “Our play had its premiere in Munich in December 2023 in Partha S theatre,” says Samragni, who has also directed the play.

The play was originally written in English, German and Bengali and later staged in English, Malayalam and Kannada/Hindi in Bengaluru, while the upcoming show in the city, will be staged in English, Hindi, and Kannada. 

“With every performance, the play is adapted to the actor’s mother tongue and hence fits different cultural contexts while staying focused on the universal themes of interpersonal relationships. This is also because Marvin and I decided we would write the play in a manner that it becomes adaptable to different languages and most importantly to the actors.”

With each iteration, the characters, the intention and even the ending changes, depending on what the actors feel is true to the story and their emotions, says Samragni, who started learning theatre at the age of six from actor, director and filmmaker based in Bengaluru, Kirtana Kumar, and has been practising it professionally for the past five years. 

Samragni and Marvin met on a farm in Bengaluru through an intercultural project called Border Busters. “We started talking about what it means to be brown or white in today’s world. We also talked about how we would address the issues of intersectionality and vulnerability, as in, we need to be vulnerable with each other if we need to understand the other better. Marvin decided to stay back and travel through India and that is when we decided to write this play.”

Earthquake examines how we navigate the constant shift between connection and isolation. “The show at Shoonya will be performed using the black box stage, where the audience sits on all four sides of the performers. This blurs the line between the stage and audience, immersing viewers in an intimate, unfiltered and uncomfortable conversation.”

The play invites you to witness the raw fragility of human connection, challenging our understanding of vulnerability and togetherness, says the writer-director, who founded the Ennui Collective in June this year as a platform to promote any form of art. 

Samragni describes Marvin and herself as artsy people. “We had intense discussions about loneliness, how youngsters are struggling to connect with others, specifically post pandemic. The play is also about two friends who are struggling to connect and is written as conversations in a call-and-response format.”

About collaborating with Marvin, Samragni says, “What started off as an exploration of cultural differences soon revealed a deeper commonality, the shared experience of loneliness and the complexities of human connection.” 

Marvin is a freelance theatre artist based out of Munich who is currently studying documentary film making, while 26-year-old Samragni works with a consulting firm with a focus on creating theatre-based offerings for corporate companies and also writing plays for them.

Earthquake will be staged on October 27, 7pm at Shoonya Centre for Arts and Somatic Practices, November 3, 3.30pm and 7.30pm at Medai, Koramangala, November 5, 7.30pm at Ranga Shankara and November 10, 7pm at Max Mueller Bhavan. Tickets on BookMyShow. 

Published - October 26, 2024 11:15 am IST