The Dramatics Society of Lady Shri Ram College presents ‘Skeleton Woman’, an esoteric play inspired by an Inuit folktale dealing with the themes of life, death and rebirth. Written by Kalki Koechlin and Prashant Prakash, this play which won the MetroPlus Playwright award in 2009, is the story of a fisherman turned world weary writer and his wife who defeat fantastical odds to stay together.

Directed by Nadia Shervani and Garima Jaju, the play explores ideas of proximity, solitude, distance and loneliness in the life of the married couple. The non-linear narrative shifts between the past, present, reality and fantasy mirroring the upheavals in their dysfunctional relationship. Garima Jaju portrays the character of the reclusive writer with great aplomb and finesse and Saumya Deojain essays the role of the sole breadwinner of the household with the perfect amount of exasperation and élan.
‘The Skeleton Woman’ was applauded at SRCC’s annual theatre festival ‘Histrionica 2012’ for the bravery in their choice of script and use of techniques seldom used on stage. It was also one of the six short listed plays at National School of Drama’s Campus theatre festival.

Garima Jaju says that “One of the greatest challenges faced by us was to build a romantic heterosexual chemistry required between the characters and to break the monotony of mundane daily life activities that we are trying to depict, during our performance.”

Through the course of the writer’s journey to success we realize that the world of fantasy and the domestic space constantly overlaps. Thus, the skeleton woman is neither a mere figment of his imagination nor just a metaphor. Where a memory ends and imagination takes over is hard to say. The biggest asset of this play is that the reality it portrays leaves a lot to the imagination of the audience, giving them a choice to pick the reality they seem most fitting for the characters.

Pragya Lal
pragyal@dubeat.com