Abhishek Majumdar’s An Arrangement of Shoes interpreted by Nisha Abdulla

Abhishek Majumdar’s An Arrangement of Shoes 

Rehearsed Reading by Nisha Abdulla 

                                    

Nisha Abdulla will present a rehearsed reading of Abhishek Majumdar’s An Arrangement of Shoes, which won the TOTO in 2010, at Atta Galatta (178, 5th Main, 9th Cross, 1st Stage, Indiranagar, Bengaluru 560038) on Saturday, 25 November 2023 at 6.00 p.m.  

This is the final of three play readings which form part of a series of events that connect to young artists whose work TFA has encouraged and validated over the last 20 years. 

About the play 

A one-woman monologue which looks at the lives of Indian Muslims through the lens of twin sisters Rukhsar and Nisar, from the time of India’s Partition in 1947 to the present. An Arrangement of Shoes was Pick of the Fringe at the Vancouver Fringe Festival; performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; the Exeter Fringe Festival; Cock Tavern Theatre, London; Acoustic Arts Festival; and the Ranga Shankara in Bangalore. It was also shortlisted for the Amnesty International Award at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award.

The jurors for the 2010 TOTO for Creative Writing described the play as a ‘monologue that mines memory and strings reminiscences as it moves engagingly along the backdrop of small town northern India. In this world of a railway colony with its own makeshift cinema hall, Majumdar’s text gently dissects the lives of a family and the social order as if they were a fragile composition that could be altered by the unknown, by the unexpected, by even … the disturbance in an arrangement of shoes.’

About Abhishek 

    

                                                            

Abhishek Majumdar is a playwright, essayist, scenographer, and director working in India and internationally. His work has been produced and commissioned by leading theatres of the world including Royal Court Theatre, London; Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai; Ranga Shankara, Bangalore; Deutsch Shauspielhaus, Hamburg; Ruhrfest Recklinghausen; Théâtre du Soleil, Paris; National Theatre, London; San Francisco Opera; PEN World Voices; Internacionale Dramaturgie Festival, Buenos Aires; San Francisco Opera; and PlayCo, New York amongst others.  His plays include Harlesden High Street, Afterlife of Birds, Rizwaan, Kaumudi, Dweepa, Muktidham, Baatin, Tathagat, Salt and, most recently, Nine Kinds of Silence which premiered in New York in September this year.  

He is the recipient of multiple awards which include, amongst others, The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award; the META Award for Best Play and Best Script;  International Theatremakers Award, New York;  the Shankar Nag Rangakarmi Award, Bangalore; the Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts; Ninasam’s  B V Karanth Fellowship;  Best Director, London Movie Awards; Best Director, 8 and Half Film Festival (Rome) Awards; and Best Scenographer, Sofia International Film Festival. 

He works in different languages and cultures. His book of essays Theater Across Borders and his plays have been published by Bloomsbury International. They have also been published and performed in Hindi, English, French, German, Czech, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri and Spanish. He is the Artistic Director of Nalanda Arts Studio and Creative Producer at the New Voices Arts Project in Bangalore. He is also the Program Head of Theater at New York University, Abu Dhabi. 

About Nisha 

                                    

Nisha Abdulla is a theatre practitioner and educator based in Bangalore. She is the Artistic Director of Qabila, a Bangalore theatre collective, and founding member of OffStream, an artists’ collective that builds community around anti-caste art, history and imaginations. 

She also teaches in varied contexts – most recently at the NALSAR University of Law and Azim Premji University. 

Nisha’s strong belief in the pursuit of justice is reflected in all her work and she does not shy away from speaking about the atrocities, violence and discrimination suffered by disenfranchised communities in India and across the world.  In some of her plays, like Mi’raj, Ashk Neele Hain Mere (the English version of which – Blue is the Colour I Cry -- was longlisted for the 2017 Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award) and WePushtheSky, Nisha explores the interplay between identity, belonging, power and gaze. 

For more details about this strongly feminist writer, visit linktr.ee/nishaabdulla 

Poster by MD Pallavi