Jyoti Dogra’s Mezok tables out existentialism
The Hindu
Linear Festivals and the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts bring Mezok by Mumbai-based Jyoti Dogra to the city
Bengaluru-based Linear Festivals and the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts (PCPA) is celebrating their collaboration with Mezok, a play. Not only will this show be Mezok’s premiere in the city, but it is also the inaugural show of the LinearX PCPA performances.
Mezok is a multi-narrative performance that unveils the complexities of human nature. According to Jyoti Dogra, playwright and director, “Mezok is a made up name, of a made up mountain, a mountain that sees you before you see it.”
Mumbai-based Jyoti Dogra who has 20 years of solo and original work to her credit, says Mezok is the first time she is writing, directing and producing an ensemble piece. Talking about the ideation and conceptualisation of this work, she says, “It began with explorations around a table, and from there we began building a world suspended between the real and the abstract.”
“Over the years I’ve been working with various pieces of furniture and somehow, I was fascinated by the table. It is three dimensional, but when you look at it vertically, it transforms into something completely different as opposed to when one accesses it from underneath. The kind of spaces a table opens up, just in terms of our presence inside it fascinated me, and I decided to work on this idea.”
Jyoti and a few like-minded others developed the idea further at Nirdigantha, the art education centre at Shettihalli,over a period of two months.
“We started with a table and no plans, but within the first 20 days, ideas began to emerge — of a mountain, offices, dining tables and bureaucracy. Soon, the table stopped being a table — it became a bar, a home, a plough, a field, and more. Our material began to develop and I started to structure it; that is how the piece came about.”
“An upside down table is a space that is different from the one that is created when you stand up on it. You are in a different place altogether, and not just physically,” she adds.
