Theatre Nisha’s performance of Apradhini—Women Without Men has been performed all across India since its debut in 2015. The hour-long play tells the stories of women who have been imprisoned for life after committing crimes such as armed robbery, dacoity and murder. The Indiependent spoke with actresses Taruna Nalini and Roshini Sridhar to learn more about the production.
The Indiependent: Can you tell me more about Apradhini—Women Without Men?
Taruna Nalini and Roshini Sridhar: Apradhini—Women Without Men is an autobiographical collection of stories written by “Shivani” Gaura Pant. It is translated into English by her daughter Ira Pande. These stories are of women who are ordinary, but made extraordinary due to their circumstances; women who have been pushed to the brink by men and patriarchal structures. These stories, although written nearly five decades ago, are still relevant, and resonate with women the world over. Our performance is a compilation of five of the stories from the collection; three stories are of women who have been incarcerated for life and two of women who have punished themselves by eschewing a life in society.
Do you find your roles challenging to perform, considering the distressing themes in the show?
Our primary objective with this play was to approach the characters and stories without judgement; with the understanding that this treads into the grey area of morality, law and social norms. As actors we needed to believe in our characters’ truth, and be convinced about their lived experience, rather than attempting to place ourselves in their shoes.
Apradhini has been reimagined as a two-hander show for the Fringe. How do you find performing in a two-hander show?
We have both watched the one-person version of this play in India, and have been in awe of our colleague Meera Sitaraman’s work in it. We sought her support along with our director, V. Balakrishnan, to reimagine this as a two-hander. We felt challenged and encouraged by the varied dance, and musical elements of the play, and the support and feedback we get from each other onstage has helped develop our characters and performance.
What do you hope the audiences will take away from the show?
What we hope the audience will mull over after watching us, are the assumptions we make about people based on tags and titles (such as ‘criminal’ or ‘evil’). We hope the play also emphasises that we are all products of our circumstances, and cannot be viewed outside our contexts or judged for it.
Who inspires you?
It is difficult to name a person because as actors we take inspiration from everything and everyone. We are taught to enhance our instincts, intuitions, impulses and imagination. We are taught to be free, yet in command; be in the moment, yet aware of everything. Acting is a craft and what inspires us is the consistent hard work that goes into it everyday. If we love a story, we tell it with all our love and commitment; and there lies our inspiration. We have done this for 22 years and will continue to do this.
What’s next for Apradhini after the Fringe?
2023 is the centenary year of Apradhini’s author, “Shivani” Gaura Pant, and we are hoping to stage Apradhini in India and the UK to commemorate this. We are also on the lookout for touring opportunities for Apradhini both in the UK and abroad. Our journey with the production started in 2014, and eight years on it is still fresh, still moving, and still in performance.
Apradhini—Women Without Men will be performed at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House from 26-28 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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