Social satire goes houseful

By Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: Sunday saw Ranga Shankara host two housefull shows of ‘The View From Above’, a social satire by Bengaluru-based actor and playwright Spatica Ramanujam who has directed her third play after nearly 20 years in theatre. Speaking to News Trail, she said “I’m just overwhelmed with the response. I was certainly not expecting this turnout.”

As for the inspiration for the play, it came to her when she read a French play called Ubu Roi. “It is a play written in 1896 and is a parody of Macbeth. I had read it a few years ago and had been brewing in my head. Then the lockdown happened. I attended a playwright workshop in order to write this play,” she said.

The play deals with power, ambition, struggle for it and how ruthless people can get in the quest for power. “They say, ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’ and power has a way of turning friends to foes. That was the core of what we were trying to show through the play,” she said.

Social satire given the times we live in might be a difficult genre to navigate. “It’s really like a double edged sword. Some people laugh out loud whereas others feel it lacks depth and is too in your face,” said Spatica who is a graduate of London International School of Performing Arts. Some of the people attending thought the play ‘felt like a screenplay for a film waiting to be made’ and commended the visual treatment.