Tabling out existentialism with Mezok by Jyoti Dogra
Bengaluru-based Linear Festivals and the Status Centre for Performing Arts (PCPA) is celebrating their collaboration with Mezok, a play. Not solely will this present be Mezok’s premiere within the metropolis, however it’s also the inaugural present of the LinearX PCPA performances.
Mezok is a multi-narrative efficiency that unveils the complexities of human nature. Based on Jyoti Dogra, playwright and director, “Mezok is a made up identify, of a made up mountain, a mountain that sees you earlier than you see it.”
Mumbai-based Jyoti Dogra who has 20 years of solo and authentic work to her credit score, says Mezok is the primary time she is writing, directing and producing an ensemble piece. Speaking concerning the ideation and conceptualisation of this work, she says, “It started with explorations round a desk, and from there we started constructing a world suspended between the actual and the summary.”
“Over time I’ve been working with varied items of furnishings and in some way, I used to be fascinated by the desk. It’s three dimensional, however while you have a look at it vertically, it transforms into one thing fully completely different versus when one accesses it from beneath. The form of areas a desk opens up, simply when it comes to our presence inside it fascinated me, and I made a decision to work on this concept.”
A scene from Mezok
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Jyoti and some like-minded others developed the concept additional at Nirdigantha, the artwork schooling centre at Shettihalli,over a interval of two months.
“We began with a desk and no plans, however inside the first 20 days, concepts started to emerge — of a mountain, places of work, eating tables and paperwork. Quickly, the desk stopped being a desk — it turned a bar, a house, a plough, a area, and extra. Our materials started to develop and I began to construction it; that’s how the piece happened.”
“An the other way up desk is an area that’s completely different from the one that’s created while you arise on it. You’re in a unique place altogether, and never simply bodily,” she provides.
Although this weekend will see Mezok debut in Bengaluru, it has already accomplished 20 reveals after opening In Bombay and has been staged in Bareilly, Hyderabad and Delhi.
As many as six regional languages could be heard in Mezok — Kannada, Hindi, Punjabi, Sirmauri (a Pahari dialect from Himachal), Garhwali from Uttarakhand, and Ladakhi, aside from English — courtesy actors from Ladakh, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.
“From the start, I urged actors to improvise of their mom tongue, despite the fact that the remainder of us wouldn’t perceive. Language performed an essential function in the way in which their our bodies responded to the desk and the areas inside it,” says Jyoti.
A scene from Mezok
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Jyoti elaborates on how a mom tongue causes a shift in the way in which an individual is current of their our bodies and the way these modifications play out after they relate to different individuals. “Whereas most of those actors now dwell and work in city communities, the method was a journey again to their roots and childhood and the place their households are from.”
“Although the desk begins off as an object you’ll be able to establish with, it has a contextual use and altering its place opens up areas which modifications how you are feeling inside your personal physique,” she says, including that, ”the desk just isn’t a prop, however is likely one of the actors, taking part in many roles in Mezok.”
Linear Festivals was based by Vishruti Bindal and Bharavi in September 2024, with the intent of “pushing boundaries and increasing prospects within the performing arts”. Mezok is their first present in Bengaluru and one of many extra pragmatic points of the festivals is that their occasions are held at venues alongside metro stations to make them accessible for all.
Mezok by Linear Festivals can be carried out on the Status Centre for Performing Arts on Might 10, at 7pm. Tickets beginning at ₹299 can be found on BookMyShow.
Printed – Might 08, 2025 09:47 pm IST
