Stills freom the play
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Cancer brings devastation to one’s physical, emotional and financial wellbeing. The disease not only drains the patient, but also the family and caretakers, due to the long drawn treatments that stretch for years, leaving behind disastrous side effects.
In Bengaluru, Karunashraya (Bangalore Hospice Trust) offers free palliative care to the terminally ill, attempting to make their lives as comfortable as possible. In 2023, Karunashraya launched Crossing Over, a book compiling of the stories of its patients. These stories come to life on stage through First Drop Theatre as Crossing Over to be staged from April 13.
Bejoy Balagopal
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“First Drop Theatre has not been into mainstream theatre but something called a playback theatre,” says Bejoy, who founded the group with Radhika Jain, founder and artistic director of First Drop Theatre. “It is an interactive, socio-improv format of theatre where the audience share their feelings and moments from their lives, and the actors perform them on-the-spot using text, poetry, images, movement, music, metaphors, and more.”
The best thing about playback theatre is that one does not need a stage, costumes or a huge stage set, says writer and director Bejoy Balagopal. “It can be practised in any open space. We have used short and long forms, as well as metaphors to bring the stories to life that the audience share with us as using this form of theatre.”
First Drop Theatre explains Bejoy, focuses on theatre and health care, which led them to work extensively with Karunashraya. “We did a playback performance based on our interactions with the nurses and the caretakers there. Nurses, we realised, were deeply affected with all the patients they lost as Karunashraya is an end-of-life care. Some of them said it was so emotionally draining that they had numbed themselves to be able to deal better with the suffering they witness on a daily basis.”
Radhika did an extended eight-week workshop for the nurses in Karunashraya to help them be aware of their emotions and how to deal with them. The long years of interaction led Karunashraya to collaborate with First Drop Theatre when they launched the book.
It is an account of the experiences of the terminally-ill, nurses, doctors and caretakers, says Bejoy. “We were asked to stage these stories. Crossing Over is a proscenium play.”
Radhika Jain
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The play features three stories from the book, Bonds That Bind (a reflection on relationships), Rainbow of Emotions (different levels of acceptance that patients exhibit) and Prem & Prem (about world beyond the binary and how that holds new meanings for health care professionals). The last story, Bejoy says, is Shadow and Light, about a friend who lost a partner to cancer and his struggles to cope.
The thing that caretakers of the terminally ill forget, Bejoy says, is that all they have to do is be there for the patient. “This is what came forth when we heard the personal account of our friend. The staff of Karunashraya said the prudent thing would be to sit and have a conversation. We try to do everything to make them comfortable and avoid having deep conversations with them. Shadow and Light talks about this aspect of cancer.”
After the staging, Bejoy says, there will be half an hour of playback theatre time to interact with the audience.
The play was earlier staged for the staff and guests of Karunashraya on the occasion of World Palliative Care Day in October 2022 and staged for the public in February and March this year.
The overall project concept and artistic design for Crossing Over is by Radhika, the set is by Naman Roy and music by Deepthi Bhaskar. It will feature Thulasi Raj, Snehil Basoya, Vinay Kumar and Bejoy Balagopal in the cast.
Crossing Over will be staged on April 13 at Vyoma ArtSpace, JP Nagar, April 14 at Medai – The Stage, Koramangala and April 20 at Shoonya Center for Art and Somatic Practices, Lal Bagh Main Road. All shows are at 5.30 pm and tickets are on BookMyShow.