Girlhood in a quandary

Centred around the relationship a girl shares with her family and society, Flypaper Trap is sure to give the audience a “slice of life.” The play, written by Swati Simha and co-directed by Ashish Sen and Niranjan Gokhale, deals with a plethora of issues like coming of age, puberty, radicalisation in religion and more, from the perspective of a girl in the eighth standard. Niranjan Gokhale, co-director of the play delves deeper.

Niranjan and Ashish Sen started to work on the play in early February. “It was a different experience all together because I used to handle the lighting and I’m back to directing after quite some time,” explains Niranjan, who has previously directed Pratibinbh and a few other Marathi plays.

“The play is from the perspective of the girl and the relationship she shares with the men in her life like her father, brother and a boy in her class who is a Muslim. Through the play, we have tried to showcase how kids who are so little get brainwashed and caught up in the different beliefs of their family through the relationship the girl shares with the Muslim boy. There are these small comments and snide remarks made by characters in the play that will hopefully make people cringe and put things in perspective,” explains the co-director.

The play also portrays the presence of the clear distinction between black and white in society. “It’s like there is no grey area — the other side is always seen as evil and we have tried to illustrate this with the help of a number of metaphors like the garden turning into a graveyard and paper planes being burnt. It all represents how people prefer to shove things under the carpet and hide things that might be jarring, rather than dealing with the issue at hand,” says Niranjan who hopes to make the audience aware of the fact that it is our actions that are impacting the future generations.

“It was most challenging to explain my point of view and understanding to the actors as they bring their own thoughts and ideas of the characters. You also can’t force your ideas of the characters onto them so it’s important to strike a balance. But all the six characters bring different things to the play,” speaks up the 34 year old director who hopes to make an impact on the audience through his work.

The play is being staged at Ranga Shankara on June 11 at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm.