Theatre director PR Arun explores gender, violence and patriarchy in his latest production Hand of God

Hand of God explores consent and unit successful intimate relationships to amusement however love, marriage, and powerfulness go tools of control. The installation pivots marital rape, and due to the fact that of the interactive quality of its conception, the play demands its assemblage instrumentality a stance. There is nary escaping whether it makes them uncomfortable, overwhelmsed oregon is triggering.  

“It has been antithetic each clip it has been staged, depending connected however the assemblage responds to it. The shows person been intense, provoking aggravated statement wrong the audience. Often, we, the unit and actors, person been amazed by the outcome,” helium says. Arun straddles mediums, helium is the writer of films specified as Nellikka, Jamna Pyari and Finals, which helium besides directed. His web bid Pharma is streaming connected JioHotstar.

Hand of God shapeshifts per show depending connected the ‘collective conscience’ of the audience. “If 1 time it was emotional, different time it triggered aggravated debate. The assemblage decides the climax, the enactment progresses arsenic the bulk wants,” Arun says. 

He archetypal wrote the play successful English successful 2019. “Why I wrote it successful English, I don’t know. Today, I consciousness that being section is being global, particularly topics that person to bash with sex and sexuality should beryllium spoken astir successful the autochthonal language. That is however the play got rewritten successful Malayalam, successful different format itself!”

God is astatine the centre of a satellite wherever power, justness and emotion collide. However, God is not God arsenic we know. It is simply a metaphor for systems — societal and familial — that determine whose suffering deserves precedence. So the assemblage gets to ballot for who pays the price. There is nary achromatic and achromatic successful this satellite wherever the characters are complicit and affected by what happens.

This invites the assemblage to face the uncomfortable shades of grey. The play uses a blend of acheronian humour, sensuality and unease to bespeak connected gender, authorities of the body, religion and democracy.

Misogyny manifested

Among the main characters are a king, queen and slave; astatine the bosom of the play lies the queen’s rape, archetypal by the enslaved and past by her husband, the king. The uncomfortable questions statesman here. Audience effect has ranged from cheering erstwhile the king asserts his ‘ownership’ of his wife’s body, unfortunate blaming and slut-shaming, to the manifestation of misogyny and patriarchy, Arun says. Astonishingly, immoderate of these responses were by women, which makes it adjacent much interesting. He plans to stock the results of voting, wherever the assemblage formed votes for the quality they consciousness is guilty, with experts for a sociological study. 

“It is highly provocative, and is for mature audiences; it is not for children,” Arun asserts.     

The formed includes Jeo Baby, Meenakshy Madhavy, Anagha Narayanan, Sidharth Varma, Mallika M, Kishore Roshik, and Joshy Johnson. Of casting Jeo Baby, who has proven his acting chops successful films, Arun says, “For the relation of the king, we were looking for an histrion ‘like Jeo Baby’. That reasoning led to ‘why not inquire him?’” He spoke to Jeo, who, astatine the time, was looking to springiness theatre a shot. Anagha Narayanan has been seen successful Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam, Anpodu Kanmani, and Vasshi among different films isolated from being an progressive beingness successful theatre plays.

The play has been staged astatine six venues successful Kochi, including the Kochi Muziris Biennale. Arun intends to instrumentality the play to different cities and towns successful Kerala including Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut, and Kanhangad, and Bengaluru.