Satirical play to portray four men’s pursuit of a woman

Radha, revolves around the story of a young woman who is being pursued by four men belonging to different social backgrounds.

“Even though the story was originally written during the 1970s, it is unfortunate that it is still relevant today, in the sense that women don’t get to voice their opinions. The play goes on to show that men don’t know when to stop in their pursuits and don’t often understand when a woman says ‘no’. It is towards the end of the play that we see the leading lady (Radha) of the story deliver a talk on what goes on in her mind,” elaborates Nikhil, who is directing the play for his own theatre firm, Orcha Productions.

It was challenging to adapt a story into a play, without steering away from the crux of the story, he admits. “It took us about two months to work on the play. We have each of the four men in the story speaking four different languages — Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Bhojpuri — as they all hail from different regions, making it a multi-lingual show. While I believe theatre has no language barrier, this show will include balanced proportions of different languages to ensure everyone can understand what is going on. The play will also have elements of live music in it. It is the first time that I will be attempting a multi-lingual musical,” adds Nikhil, who has also worked with theatre companies like Stray Factory, Madras Players and Evam in the past.

The cast includes a total of six people, including Dhaarshan Ramkumar Ganesan, Nikhil, Satish Kumar, Pooja Bohra, Ranjan and Pranav Thomas. WhilePooja plays the role of Radha, the other men try their tricks and proposals to win her over.

The play will be staged at Alliance Francaise of Madras on September 14 at 4 pm and 7 pm.