Shakuntala's tale gets a modern spin in post pandemic world

Theatre writer and director Isheeta Ganguly is excited about her latest play that's currently available globally on video on demand. Titled Shakuntala Awaits, it is an adaption of the story of Shakuntala and Dushyant in the post pandemic setting, which also raises pertinent questions on gender and societal expectations.
Isheeta says, "This play is the adaptation of the story of Shakuntala and Dushyant set in today's world.It is a story of two people meeting in a Mumbai book store. She's a doctor and he's a professor from Harvard. It traces their story and chemistry. The story is set in 2020 and has Covid as a plot point too."
Isheeta elaborates that she has spoken about some issues that she thinks need to be addressed. "The topic deals with pregnancy. As a society, we talk about reproductive rights, in the sense, we talk about the right to prevent pregnancy and abortion, but we don't talk much about the right for a single woman to have a child and raise it on her own. It is still so taboo in our society," she adds.
Isheeta further states, "Although it is 2021, there are so many social issues that women are still not able to partake in and they are pegged with a certain traditionalism and set of expectations. It was a taboo for someone to be pregnant out of wedlock in Shakuntala's tale and it is still the sad reality today. This is the large arc of the play."
Rehearsing during the pandemic, with people sitting across two continents, was quite an experience for the team. "I would wake up at 4.30-5 am and we would rehearse on video meetings. Since my cast, both Purva Bedi and Samrat Chakravarti, have shoots, their preferred time to rehearse would be late evening and that would be early morning for me. They are very proactive actors and it made the process collaborative and fun," shares Isheeta, who has also been working on a screen version of the play.
So when would she think the theatre scene would return to normalcy? "I'd give it time till the third quarter of this year to see some sort of a normalcy and people returning to theatres to watch plays without worrying about the current situation. Once we start getting larger number of people vaccinated, there will be a greater sense of security as a society," says Isheeta.