LETTERS OF INTENT

For Reading Room, Bengaluru-based actordirector Anuja Ghosalkar’s second production, the veteran performer turns her audience into participants by asking them to bring a personal letter to the performance. At the beginning of the show, Ghosalkar walks onto the stage and declares herself the postmistress for the evening. Drawing from numbered letters from the audience and an existing archive of letters from her own collection, she then asks the audience to read them aloud.

“The idea is to juxtapose personal narratives with historical ones,” says Ghosalkar. “I’ve kept away from themes; the letters are paired keeping an emotional arc in mind. And since I haven’t read the letters from the audience before, there is always an element of surprise.” The show opens on August 1 at The Reading Room at The Mumbai Assembly, Bandra.

The letters are handed to her just 10 minutes before the performance. After quickly scanning through them, she pairs them with those from her archive. “Some of the letters are deeply personal and leave scope for vulnerability. The idea is to create a safe space,” she says.

Posters all around urge people to stay silent and think more to make the space more provocative. “A love letter by Karl Marx is read along with a letter from a father to a daughter before her wedding. A letter to a sister about abuse is read by a male member of the audience. There have been several such powerful and interesting moments,” she says.

At the end of the performance, Ghosalkar requests the audience to donate their letters to her archive which includes letters from scientists to each other, a sailor to his shipping company, A.C.N. Nambiar to Nehru. “It’s also a study in language and tone, we have read letters ranging from the 19th century to present-day e-mails,” she says.