Cleansing (2002)

This play deals with making sense of contemporary polity in the post-Gujarat Scenario and presents a scathing attack on majoritarianism. The script of the above was culled from workshops where people who were present in towns of Gujarat when all this happened also participated. It was an effort both at script creating and re-enactment. Our  impassioned reaction to what has happened in Gujarat at the beginning of the year, the play picks up and foregrounds images of violence from our ethos. Violence, destruction, state oppression – in a world fast losing sanity, the play to foregrounds conflict and conflict resolution (possible/difficult/impossible). Within this rather broad ambit we would work intensively in our reality. We move back and forth images of terror and oppression.

This play was first presented in Delhi’s Shri Ram Centre on July 3rd and 4th. We followed this with participation in the Commonwealth Theatre festival at Manchester in July 2002.

The festival, a result of feverish yearlong activity and testimony to the close relations that pandies has formed with friends/colleagues not only in the UK but also in several third world countries besides. The play was highly appreciated both by audiences in Delhi and Manchester.

Script: Anand Prakash, Sanjay Kumar