Venue – Method Juhu
Date – 1st September
Time – 3pm, 6pm and 9pm
Venue – Method Bandra
Date – 2nd September
Time – 7pm and 9pm.
Venue – Method Kala Ghoda
Date – 3rd September
Time – 6pm and 9pm.
Booking link – https://themethod.art/collections/live-events
Method will be presenting an immersive performance titled “Unshared Childhoods” across its three distinct venues – Method Juhu, Method Bandra, and Method Kalaghoda. The dates for this extraordinary experience are September 1st, September 2nd, and September 3rd respectively. This unique presentation, named “Unshared Childhoods,” offers an intimate and immersive exploration of the intricate relationship between empathy and love.
Performance Brief
“Really what keeps us apart at the end of years is unshared childhood.” – A K Ramanujan
The provocation: Can a room of performers and audience members recreate the oft- romanticised Dead Letter Office – where undelivered and undeliverable post is sent– and reanimate it? To find out, we invited people across the globe to mail us real letters that were never read by their intended recipients, either because they remained unwritten or simply unsent.
The performance: An intimate, immersive experiment exploring the connection between empathy and love, located in the Dead Letter Offices of our minds. Audience members will step into the roles of the anonymous addressees and addressed, for what could become a catharsis once removed.
The assumption: To love is to bear witness. To bear witness is to love.
The challenge: Can we love people with whom we share no personal histories? Can the point of separation – unshared moments – become the point of contact?
Unshared Childhoods is a collective effort at imagination disguised as a play. Spurred on by teenage party games, Marquez’s short stories, romanticised tales of messages in glass bottles afloat at sea, and a fascination for compound adjectives, this piece explores the notion that all desire stems from a space of lack… as does all destruction.
In a volatile world where words are used as a smokescreen, Unshared Childhoods invites individuals to keep vigil in no man’s land.
Credits
Concept and Design: Tanvi Shah
Music Composition and Sound Design: Anusha Ramasubramoney, Pushkar Srivatsal and Meera Desai
Live Music: Anusha Ramasubramoney and Meera Desai
Movement: Paridnya Kallyanpur
Moderation: Meghana AT
Indian Sign Language Performance: Sangeeta Gala
Indian Sign Language Interpretation: Madhu Keny
Set Design: The Quilting House at Thotpot
Production: Vidhi Mehra and Nirlek Dhulla
Dramaturgical Support: Ryan Napier
Poster Design: Disha Sanghvi
Words: anonymous writers from around the world
Show Notes
Duration: 80 minutes
Languages: English and Indian Sign Language
Ages : 16+
Trigger warning: The content of the crowd-sourced letters mentions real-life experiences of loss, bereavement, systemic trauma, suicidal ideation, and heartbreak. While the experience is completely immersive and the audience will be guided through the piece, individuals who do not wish to participate are under no compulsion to do so.
Please note that this is a safe space and will work to safeguard the fundamental rights to dignity and respect of every person in the room. Intolerance, ridicule, bigotry, or hate crimes of any severity will not be tolerated.
