For the love of theatre

Imagine you lose your head, and someone replaces it with an elephant’s head. Sounds familiar? Such is the story of the play The Elephant in the Room, but with a twist. The play is conceived and directed by Yuki Ellias and written by Sneh Sapru. The play has seven characters, all of whom are played by Yuki. The play is a part of the Prakriti Foundation Fest and will be staged on Sunday evening. It is a story about a boy with an elephant head who is on a quest to find his original head.

The director Yuki Ellias, wears multiple hats at any given time. An actor, director, writer, teacher and explorer — Yuki has been doing it all. She says her family has been the pillar of her strength. “My family has been extremely supportive. They sent me to Paris to study theatre and I also studied for a while in London. I made a film with my father after coming back called Live You To Death.”

Yuki was drawn to theatre during college. She was an active part of her college’s drama society Ithica, which has produced some of the most talented actors and directors of this country.

When asked about her future plans, she says, “Until last year everything I did was ad hoc. But now I plan everything. The kind of stories I want to bring to life requires planning and a lot of time.”

Theatre is a drawing art form for anybody who has had a taste, but is also one which is extremely difficult to sustain. When asked about it, she says, “At least in Mumbai, you can do a lot of things to keep yourself afloat. There are web series you can work for, music videos, corporate trainings among other things. But yes, if you are not from Mumbai, it does get tough, but that’s theatre; you cannot just up and leave.”

Every artist has an inspiration; someone they look up to. So does Yuki. She draws her inspiration from Atul and Geetanjali Kulkarni.

“The couple apart from being phenomenal actors, do so much for the society. Recently they went to tribal belts on Maharashtra with short plays for students to tell them about the importance of education,” she says.

With inspirations like these and experiences from all over the globe, there is little doubt that Yuki will be going places. The Elephant in the Room is just a pit stop in that journey and you would not want to miss it.