A power play in academia

Every day when the news feed is brimming with updates on issues with Indian education system, theatre group Sutradhar’s timing to stage Oleanna, a two-character play by American playwright David Mamet, is bang on! Oleanna revolves around the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual exploitation and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded a university honour.

Elaborating further on the compelling storyline, the director of the play, Prof. Bhasker Shewalkar, says, “This two-character drama focuses on the various aspects of a student-teacher relationship, revolving around one’s insecurities, institutional politics, hypocrisies of higher education, student union influences and sexual harassment. The whole play is open-ended, up for the audience to have their own interpretation. Not at one point have we said who, the professor or the student, is guilty. Both of them have their own motives behind their actions. It was a challenge to get everything spot on.”

Notably, the role of the professor will be donned by theatre veteran Vinay Varma, whereas Supriya Aysola will play the student.

Talking about the challenges he faced while trying to make Oleanna work, Vinay says, “To make this 90-minute play a reality, we faced lots of challenges. It was on our mind for the past six years and it is only now that everything has fallen into place. The first challenge was to get permission from the playwright David Mamet to stage the play in India. We’ve only got the permission to stage it twice as of now. The next challenge was the venue; Ravindra Bharati was free only on these particular dates. So we practised the play for a little over a month and will be staging it on March 21 and 22 as a tribute to World Theatre Day and the Indian education system.”

Supriya, on the other hand, faced a different challenge altogether. “I had worked with Vinay sir way back in 2012. In between, I explored acting in short films and other ventures. So when I was finalised to be the student, I knew this would be tough. As an actor, the script demands a lot of layers and when you have such an amazing and experienced co-actor and director, it becomes demanding; but at the end, only the best comes out,” she states.

And so, with a burning passion for theatre, team Oleanna is all geared up to take this powerful storyline to multiple locations, including educational hubs as they feel that this is a story that needs to reach a much larger audience.