Play ‘Ladies Compartment’ acts as a testament to women supporting each other
By Simran Bhatnagar
The Bangalore-based theatre group Being put up their play Ladies Compartment for the 29th time on January 19th at Atta Galatta, Koramangala.
Directed by Pooja Pandey Tripathi, and written by the Pandey sisters — Pooja and Arti, Ladies Compartment is a play set in a Delhi Metro that breaks down and goes on a lock down for an hour, leading to an hour-long back and forth between five women travelers — a corporate professional Kalyani (depicted by Kalyani Menon), Punjabi aunty Geeta (enacted by Mini Raj), a maid named Tara (played by Chandni Agarwal), ‘Page 3 personality’ Tina (played by Sanjukta Das), and a Jutt Haryanvi police officer (played by Pooja Tripathi, herself.)
The play also briefly addresses some of the struggles faced by the transgender community.
A eunuch (played by Imran Pasha) is the 6th character that often breaks the fourth wall, and ties the beginning, middle and the end of the play together.
To prepare for the role, Pasha said he read a lot of books and watched documentaries about the transgender community.
“I watched Tamanna (1998). I watched Sadak (1991). I interacted with real transgenders on the signals. I asked them about their life,” he said.
Even though there are a “hundred and one” messages that the play gives out, Tripathi believes that one of the underlying messages is that “Life is not going to serve you with your choices all the time, but you can be happy with whatever you have.”
“In this there is a character called Tara, who is a maid. She is somebody who has nothing. She has a girl to take care of. She works at different houses as a maid, but she is so happy. And there is Tina, who has ample amount of money, who has all the resources, and she just bugs about every single thing in life. It has nothing to do with resources, it has nothing to do with situations. To be happy or to be sad, it’s our choice,” she said.
Sanjukta Das, who plays the role of Tina, said “It is often said that women bring up other women. This play is a testimony of that.”
Ninety-one people filled the performance area in Atta Galatta to watch the performance.
Radhika Menon, an 18-year-old student said women from all walks of life would relate to the play.
“It’s a play for adults but at the same time it’s a coming-of-age play because you start to understand that even though these women are all working women, they’re all mothers. They’re all going through their individual struggles.”
The struggles of being a mother are not only existent in the play, but also outside of it. Chandni Agarwal, who plays the role of the maid, talked about how challenging it is for her, as a mother of two children and a mathematics teacher, to juggle between three different theatre groups which have plays lined up one after the other. “Our director is very cool,” she said. “She understands. She would give us so much of flexibility when we are not around. And the best part is she shows confidence in me. So that really boosts me. It helps us all.”
Being also has two other plays out and running at the moment — Men’s department and PTM (Parent Teacher Meeting), which are both written and directed by Pooja Pandey Tripathi.
