In Glitch in the Myth, writer-director Anoushka Zaveri breaks every rule of performance and form. Her solo play is a reimagining of the Ramayana, and not a mere retelling—she shows Sita as young and restless, Mandodari and Surpanakha as part of a secret sisterhood, and the Lakshman Rekha a glass ceiling waiting to be broken. Glitch in the Myth is all set to be performed at the Prithvi Theatre on 7 February.
A student of English literature, Zaveri first read the Ramayana in detail as a text in class. “We studied its many versions, from the Manipuri to the Assamese one. I was fascinated by how every culture, which comes in contact with the text, ends up developing its own version. However, one narrative continues to be privileged over countless others,” she says.
It made Zaveri wonder how she could respond to it as a young woman at 25. While at it, she wanted to open the text for the youth to engage with. Glitch in the Myth, tells the story of Sita’s swayamvar, and the exile, all the way up to the end, with a twist of its own. What if the exile was Sita’s idea? What if it was her ticket to freedom? These are some of the questions thrown at you in the first half of the play.
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A trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Zaveri uses the medium effectively in a play with contemporary ideas and language. The set is made up of four zari saris, suspended in the background. The actor-director is accompanied by her sister, 19-year-old Maahi Zaveri, a classical musician. The stage is sparse but the colours and movement make up for it.
It is a small production with big ideas and even bigger eyes. “The usage of the eyes (large and powerful) comes from a workshop I did in Kerala called the Navarasa Sadhanam, where I trained in koodiyattam,” elaborates Zaveri.
The idea of the glitch is something we experience regularly, every time we go against the grain. “The glitch here is a consequence of everything that Sita does differently from the original text. And, of course, it is also inspired by the Matrix films,” she adds.
Her original voice, ideas, and the Gen-Z lingo are as much a part of the show as the traditional sounds of the tabla and the quintessential Bharatanatyam aramandi. Zaveri is not just the narrator but also essays every character in the story. Her depictions of Mandodari and Ravana are particularly inventive.
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Zaveri’s Sita is young and restless, with a spot of mischief in her. “While this is Sita’s story, it is also my story. We have worshipped her as the ideal woman, she stays behind the line and never crosses the Lakshman Rekha. But my icons are women who have shattered every ceiling they find,” she says, “If we are to worship and follow her lead, she needs to change so we can be better”.
Zaveri builds the world of a flourishing kingdom, of forests and battle with ease. She is a staunch believer in Bertolt Brecht’s V-Effekt, which propagates a distance between the actor and the audience for objective viewing. “I like the audience to know who they are and what place they occupy in the story. I don’t want them to be passive or look at it as a piece of fiction. It is like a confession. But they need to know that it is a play,” she explains.
Glitch in the Myth will be staged at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, on 7 February at 8 pm.
Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai-based culture writer
