Play on poet Sylvia Plath trains the spotlight on clinical depression

Sylvia, a play scripted and directed by Athira Nikathil, is an intimate portrayal of the life of American poet Sylvia Plath and her struggle with depression

Athira Nikathil’s play Sylvia opens with the young Sylvia Plath meeting Ted Hughes, whom she would later marry. What follows is an intense life story of the American poet that rises and dips like a poem. Athira attempts to bring to life the person and poet who Sylvia was. 

Inspired by Sylvia, a 2003 biopic on Plath, Athira dips into the poet’s complex personal and literary life to create a narrative that does justice to her persona. “I watched the biopic on her, spent hours researching her, read and re-read her poetry, listened to scratchy podcasts of Sylvia’s and of her children and mother… before taking on this project,” says Athira. She employs music, dance, poetry and literature as her main theatrical devices.

It was when Athira came out of a period of clinical depression that she decided to work on Sylvia. Diagnosed with clinical depression, Plath is known to have struggled with dark episodes all through her adult life, before committing suicide at the age of 30. “When I came back into a phase of clarity, I wanted to make a play and I thought why not on Plath with whom I had always been fascinated,” she says. Having done her BA in English literature, Plath had always been an inspiration. “It was only when I had a personal experience with depression that I felt like I understood what Plath had gone through,” she says. “I wanted to take the poet’s story to more people,” says Athira.

This is Athira’s second directorial venture, her first play, Blank Page, was staged before the pandemic. She had already formed a motely crew of people who were passionate about theatre. “I did not want anyone from acting schools. I wanted those who loved the art of theatre,” says Athira.

The crew became a collective called Thambu. “Though we call it a women’s theatre collective, we have male members as well,” says Athira. The core members of the collective include Anjana Sree, Ahalya Prarithi Praveen, Krishnapriya Thilakan, Jayakrishna K J, Raghi Babu, Neethu Chandran, Akhil Vijayan, Anoop KV, Amaldeep Pradeep and Jathin Lata Shaji.

During the lockdown months, the collective did online theatre workshops and talks. Athira, who has an MA in Theatre from the School of Drama, Thrissur, says she enjoys acting as much as she enjoys directing plays. She is currently employed as a theatre instructor at Choice School in Kochi.

Sylvia, the 50-minute interactive play, produced by Thambu, has Krishnapriya Thilakan, more popularly known as Kaaapi on her instagram handle, playing Plath and Adarsh Sabu playing Ted Hughes. Ahalya, Anjana, Pranav Unni, Austine Benny, Akshay, Akhil VK, Karthik Kumar and Samarth P Anilkumar essay the other characters in the play. While the costumes have been designed by Shani Joy, art has been handled by Sreedath PR. Light design and execution are by Subin KK and Jithu Vargehese, Vishnu Sheeja Vinod and Sam offer technical support.