Butai debuts with Bag Dancing, a tale of friendship and empathy

The play, performed in English for children over the age of eight and adults, delves into the moving tale of Imelda, a homeless woman whose bags hold the remnants of her life, packed with memories and stories. Neville, a young shelter worker, has built emotional walls around himself, reluctant to share his own past, weighed down by its burdens. As their unlikely friendship blossoms, they slowly open to one another, weaving together a powerful tapestry of human connection through the stories they reveal. 

A new theatre troupe, Butai, founded by young theatre practitioners Prajwal S., Bhyrava, and Arun D.T., is set to present their opening production Bag Dancing on September 26, at Ranga Shankara at J.P. Nagar. 

The play, performed in English for children over the age of eight and adults, delves into the moving tale of Imelda, a homeless woman whose bags hold the remnants of her life, packed with memories and stories. Neville, a young shelter worker, has built emotional walls around himself, reluctant to share his own past, weighed down by its burdens. As their unlikely friendship blossoms, they slowly open to one another, weaving together a powerful tapestry of human connection through the stories they reveal. 

Bag Dancing, written by British author Mike Kenny, who specialises in theatre for young audiences, is directed by Ujwala Rao, a Kannada and English theatre maker and actor.  

Speaking to The Hindu, Ujwala said that the play talks about issues that one usually shies away from in a children’s play. “What really struck me about the play was how it dealt with issues that were very heavy, but real. People want to protect children, and generally we don’t want to talk about issues like homelessness, displacement, war, genocides, the class system and more. These are issues that affect children and adults, and this play talks about it all, in a gentle way. It enables empathy in children and adults who watch it.” 

On asked why this play is important for children and why she picked it, Ujwala says that it talks about issues that even parents are not able to address. “I have met parents who say that we want to talk about issues in the world, in the country, but we just don’t know how to bring it up with our children. Parents find ideas like mental health, death, destruction and war painful, and they want to protect their children from it. This play creates an opportunity for families to have a conversation opener. Something in this play will stimulate curiosity and a question in their child.”

Mike Kenny, she says, gives actors and directors much to work with. He takes popular fairytales of the Western world, he turns them on their heads, and roots them in the reality people see. There are elements in his text that give the audience the place to interpret the play. 

Ujwala says that though the play is set in the U.K. and was written more than three decades ago, it is relevant to the Indian audience even now, because the systems the play talks about, unfortunately, have only gotten stronger across the world.