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Stage presence

Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Power act Revathi tests new waters

For her theatre debut, actress (actor to be politically correct) Revathi chose to do a performance for a limited audience. No frills of cocktails and a who’s who list of guests for her. “I’d love to do a play that would be seen by 200 people per show. Perhaps I’d do that sometime later. This play, or rather an experience, is termed Intimate Theatre meant for a limited audience, say 50, because each member of the audience has to see the expression and hear the dialogue of the actor on stage,” she explains.

Revathi made her theatre debut in ‘1, Madhav Bagh,’ written by Chetan Datar, translated in English by Shantha Gokhale and directed by Mariam Jetpurwala. A stage setting that resembles a middle class living room, a phone call that disturbs the day of a mother-of-three, and the reality of alternate preference in sexuality… the play handles it within a span of 35 minutes.

“When I staged the first show at Arundati Nag’s Ranga Shankara in Bangalore, I performed in the corridor with props to make it look like a middle class living room. The audience just sat around and experienced the performance,” says Revathi.

“On the first day, I just did one show since I was apprehensive of my debut in theatre. The feed back was heart warming, giving me courage to push myself further. The next two days, I followed it up with two shows each,” she recollects. The play was featured in the Jaipur literary festival in February this year.

Revathi has not planned her next step in theatre and says, “When I do something new, I want to be absolutely comfortable with it. Theatre is an ocean and one cannot do one play and say he/she knows theatre. Right now, I am trying to innovate and better myself.”

The consummate actress has also worked on the script for a short film on children to be directed by students of cinematographer Rajeev Menon’s institute in Chennai. “There are reports that I am acting in it, which isn’t true. I worked on the script with Rajeev and I was supposed to direct it. Since I had other commitments, I opted out,” she says.

Amidst all this, Revathi takes time out to blog. Yet another actor who’s taken to blogging in a big way? “Not really,” she says, “I have a website where I share my thoughts and people write back to me. I enjoy interacting with people. I am not an avid blogger. The way I space out my work, I don’t have enough time to blog regularly.”

SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO

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