Performance Studies Collective presents ‘It’s Cold in Here’ English Play based on a novella by Gabriel García Márquez at Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP) > 6:30pm on 15th & 16th May 2015

Time : 7:00 pm Add to Calendar 15-05-2015 19:00:00 16-05-2015 20:30:00 68 Performance Studies Collective presents ‘It’s Cold in Here’ English Play based on a novella by Gabriel García Márquez Event Page : http://www.delhievents.com/2015/05/performance-studies-collective-presents.html Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP), New Delhi - 110001 DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served Basis)

Venue : Instituto Cervantes, 48, Hanuman Road, Connaught Place (CP), New Delhi - 110001
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Metro : Nearest Metro Station - 'Rajiv Chowk' (Yellow Line and Blue Line)
Area : Connaught Place (CP)

Event Description : ‘It’s Cold in Here’ English Play based on a novella by Gabriel García Márquez.

Synopsis of the play: ‘It’s Cold in Here’is inspired by the novella Innocent Erendira... written by Gabriel García Márquez. It takes the fantastical essence of Marquez’s text and makes it revolve around issues of sexual aggression in contemporary context. The visual structure and the written script have evolved out of each other. Instead of offering a direct textual narrative, the entire scenography has two narratives running parallel - that of the concept of Marquez’s Erendira and of a lady in the morgue. The language of the whole performance comprises of monologues. The characters here work as the elements of a giant wheel that moves in a ritualistic pattern.

Summary of the play: The performance develops through a series of ritualistic actions which revolve around the narratives of two central characters. The 14 year old Erendira the girl who has been forced into sex- work by her grandmother and a nameless girl, who has been raped, tortured, murdered and waiting for the burial on the stretcher in a morgue. The play begins with the monologue of the girl on the stretcher who recollects the pain of how her body been violated. From the whining and somniloquy of the grandmother we gather how her glorious past turned upside down due to the mishap caused by Erendira who accidently burns down their ancestral mansion with a candle. To repay for the loss grandmother pimps Erendira from town to town by setting up carnivals around the temporary settlements. In one point she is taken away by Christian missionaries and married off in a mass wedding of pregnant single women. Sooner she returns to her grandmother as her husband was bought by the old lady for few hundred. She falls in love with a young customer named Ulises who promises to buy her freedom but fails. Out of desperation, she urges him to kill the grandmother which he succeeds eventually. In the end when Erendira runs alone towards the horizon of the endless desert the girl on the stretcher washed the dirt off her body and stand up straight in fresh linens.

Direction & scenography: Deepan Sivaraman

Directors note: The biggest challenge of a contemporary theatre maker is how to respond creatively to the complex social fabric where we live in. It’s cold in here is an attempt to address the ongoing sexual violence against woman in India which I think is the most painful sore of our society. Hence ‘the society’ is invited to witness Marquez’s heart wrenching tale Innocent Erendira set in a morgue where a girl’s violated and mutilated body has been waiting for the burial. No attempt has been made to give away a complete narrative of Marquez’s novella. It’s only repeats the central theme, the violation of female body over and over through choreographic actions, metaphorical objects and monologues which evoke a ritualistic disposition in the performance. The audiences who will attempt to create a chronological narrative won’t be succeeded. The audiences who will attempt to find dramatic sequences and sceneries might be disappointed and provoked. Audiences who won’t attempt anything but experience the scenography of 50 minutes might leave the space with a heavy heart.

About the group: Performance Studies Collective is a Delhi-based performance art and studies gathering, pan-Indian in scope and experimental in character. The group comprises of musicians, dancers, writers, actors, directors and academicians from across the country. The aim of the group is to critically engage with the field of performance studies, writing on performances, producing socially & spatially engaging performances which cross the boarders of various art streams, organising lectures and publishing newsletters. Majority of the members are the graduates, students and professors of post graduate performance studies programme of School of Culture & creative expressions- Ambedkar University in Delhi. It’s Cold in Here is the third production of PSC and previous productions were The Little Prince of Antoine De Saint Exupery and Project Nostalgia inspired by Fellini’s Eight and Half. The most recent production is The Cabinet of Dr Caligari which was based on the German classical horror film.

About the director: Deepan Sivaraman, a director scenographer and academic presently is the founding artistic director of Oxygen Theatre Company based in Kerala. He served as the Artistic Director of International Theatre Festival Kerala 2014 edition and as a jury member of International Theatre Festival M. Art Connect Mogilev, Belarus and Devine Comedy Festival ( Boska Komedia) Krakow, Poland. He received Charles Wallace India Trust Award in 2003, META Awards in 2010 and Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2012. His notable directorial projects were Spinal Cord, Peer Gynt, Ubu Roi, Its Cold in Here and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and scenographic projects are Virasat, Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, Verdigris and Tatri Realising Self. His works have been performed in several important theatre festivals around the world including Avignon, Alameda, Edinburgh, Prithvi, ITFOK, META and Bharath Rang Mahotsav. Deepan is a post graduate from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design London. He is presently an Associate Professor and Dy. Dean at school of Culture and Creative Expressions of Ambedkar University Delhi.

About the dramaturge: 

Latheesh Mohan is presently a student of M.A. Performance Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. He is also working as the secretary of the NGO Backyard Civilization Collective based in Kochi, Kerala. He has been a bilingual poet and an essayist for many years and his interest in performance has enabled him to organize many language-art performance events in Kerala. He has published two collections of poetry in Malayalam, of which Chevikal Chembarathikal (DC Books/2011) has earned critical acclaim. His poem ‘Winter in Many Similies’ is part of M.A. Malayalam course at M.G. University, Kottayam.

Kritika Tandon is presently a student of M.A. Performance Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. She has been trained in journalism from Delhi University. She is a practising singer, poet and is pursuing research in the philosophy of sound and music.

Cast: Amilty Abraham, Mridupankhi Rajkumari, AmitaRana, Shivangi Singh, Ankur Saxena, NidhiKol, Harman PreetKaur, IpsitaSengupta, Kritika Tandon, Garima, Benil Biswas, Deepan Sivaraman, Aditya Majumdar, NidhiKol, KritikaTandon, Ipsita Sengupta,

Mridupankhi Rajkujmari, Garima, Purav Goswami, Latheesh Mohan, Vinay Seth

Produced by Performance Studies Collective, School of Culture and Creative Expressions Ambedkar University Delhi

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