About The Event
A middle-aged man covers his mouth and whispers into a cell phone in the middle of a crowded metro. His tone is conspiratorial, punctuated by gentle laughter, and his eyes dance. Clearly, the person on the other end is not his wife. A young couple snuggles together near the compartment doors, and a sari-clad woman longingly looks at them from below her ghunghat. Perhaps this kind of PDA has never been a part of her reality and never will be. A young woman swiftly moves away from a young man who has been ogling her.
The many stories that one witnesses in the Delhi metro – single trajectories, overlapping themes – are the starting point of this script. As the city morphs and grows, traditional laxman rekhas are questioned and a younger generation seems ready, willing, and excited to explore the entire spectrum of sensuality and sexuality. Desire, overt or covert, commitment or the lack of it, gratification of denial, ghosting or stalking – are all a part of our ‘relationship drama’ this evening.
Old norms are challenged, new questions are raised, and boundaries are redefined.
- Feisal Alkazi, director
After Dark takes us through the journeys of three characters who have varied relationships with desire. We meet Kiran, who has built her world around her emotionally absent husband. We meet Priyanka, who is trying to understand her own views on love as an independent young woman. And we meet Saad, who was unwittingly pulled into the world of love and lust at a very young age.
As the play travels with these characters and their attempts to move into a future without the burden of their past intimacies, it teases the concepts of consent and boundaries. It makes one think about gender and about our fixed ideas of what each gender must behave like in a relationship.
After Dark also removes the desirer/desired from a solitary space and explores their interaction with people around them – bringing in themes of solidarity and friendship.
- Mahek Jangda, actor
