I Killed My Mother… is a play that journeys into the mind of a 25-year-old, who is oscillating between her inner and outer voice, which shape who we become
The play highlights wavering nature of our outer and inner voices
Theatre and plays are a journey, both for the audience and the cast—a feeling that producer Meghana AT, and director and playwright Mallika Shah connect with, and aim to reflect through their play, I Killed My Mother/ It Wasn’t My Fault. It all started with “one mother-daughter fight” and a workshop assignment for Mallika, prompting her to write a poem, Killing my Darlings, full of angst and rage against her family. This, eventually, became the base of her script.
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“I had an idea for a play that explores the conflict between the outer voice and the inner voice, where the outer voice has to be a certain way in society and unable to speak every inner thought out loud, and how those thoughts affect us, creating a dissonance with ourselves,” Shah tells us.
I Killed My Mother… is a story of an ordinary 25-year-old girl who journeys through the conflicts between her four inner voices and one outer voice, while being assailed by the cruelty of self-doubt, algorithmic games, generational gaps, and the frivolousness of modern urbanhood. Production of the play, which has a cast of five women and one man, took a year and a half, after which they performed in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Jaipur. “I Killed My Mother... is a classic play with modern technologies and sound design, which is a very rare concept in theatre”, says Meghana.
She adds, “The title may seem like a clickbait but in reality, it speaks about the two main aspects of the play: the accountability and the relationship with mothers.” She also founded a theatre company, Tafreehwale, which became a legal and registered entity after producing and collaborating for I Killed My Mother... last year.
“This play takes the frivolity of girlhood seriously, especially the dichotomy of demeaning things girls enjoy, like chick flicks or a Taylor Swift song but praising others like an action movie for instance. The mundanity is reflected through a single day in the character’s life, from things like sitting in a taxi and watching the traffic increase or not wanting to send an email, to contemplating whether or not to apologise to my mother after a fight,” Shah says about the play’s core values.
Although the play highlights a mother-daughter relationship, it also finds resonance with fathers and grandparents, who may be able to understand their Genz kids better thanks to the message that the play aims to give out. What also stands out is the depiction of mothers in India, a country where motherhood is glorified but the actual reality in terms of how we treat mothers is contradictory.
WHERE: G5A Warehouse, Mumbai
WHEN: May 11th, 6:30pm
COST: Rs 499
To Book: Paytm Insider
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