The show must go deeper

When the unwanted opinions from society mix with your already frazzled thoughts, sitting in your room and pondering about it seems like a good idea.

Doing precisely that through her first theatrical performance titled The Show, Ranjitha Sakleshpur tries to bring out the inner turmoil through expressions and dialogues, for which the 21-year-old even won the Pearl Padmasee Trophy for Outstanding Actress, as well as New Writer. We talk to the Christ College graduate and debutante theatre artiste on her amazing journey so far.

The talented young girl was part of a number of school plays before she went on to get a degree in the field. “I have always been passionate about theatre and I think my own life inspired this piece of work. Now, and even as a kid, I was very lonely and lived in the space in my brain. I want to do a lot of things and theatre is just one of them,” admits Ranjitha who not only performed, but also wrote and directed herself, and ended up bagging the award among 143 other participants.

It is the first award that Karnataka has won, after a long duration of 12 years at the prestigious theatre ceremony.  “Through this performance, I wanted to show that a woman can be unabashedly herself in her space. She is not a checklist  and all this is seen through the space she is in,” says the staunch feminist who was overwhelmed by the responses she got for The Show.

“Women thanked me for the simplest reasons — I was not all clean and plucked. I had my unibrow as well as body hair, all not particularly gross things but it was a way to show that I was okay in my own skin and that it is the idiosyncrasies of being human. Both women as well as men thought the piece was incredibly soothing,” adds the artiste.

Apart from appreciation, Ranjitha is also subject to a lot of criticism for her work. But what keeps her moving forward, is what we want to know. “I wanted to rebel but couldn’t exactly rebel against my parents because they are okay with everything I do. So my boredom and need to be mischievous is what keeps me going and since its brought me so far, I would like to see where is takes me,” giggles the youngster who also loves engaging in conversation.

“I love observing and listening to people talk. And off late, I have started to paint and also write poetry when I am feeling inspired,” chimes Ranjitha in conclusion.

— The Show will be staged on March 25 and 26 at 7.30 pm at Lahe Lahe.