MEDEA

• Kasba Arghya’s new play Medea, directed by Manish Mitra is inspired by the ancient Greek tragedy “Medea” written by Euripides.
• The monologue focuses on Medea’s inner voice rather than the full sequence of events of the play.It reflects the emotional intensity and psychological conflict found in the original Greek drama.Euripides’ Medea is known for portraying a powerful female character who questions justice and betrayal.
• The monologue highlights Medea’s thoughts, pain, and sense of isolation without revealing the entire narrative. Through this form, the audience connects directly with Medea’s mental and emotional state. The language of the monologue often carries echoes of classical tragedy and poetic expression.
• It preserves the spirit of Euripides’ work while allowing space for modern interpretation. The monologue emphasizes themes like love, loss, identity, and inner struggle. Thus, Medea’s Monologue serves as a concentrated reflection of the original play rather than a complete retelling.

MASKS

• Masks (2025-), a Kasba Arghya production directed by Manish Mitra, is conceived as a solo performance that is mostly non-verbal and lasts for approximately thirty-five minutes.
• With a single actor and a starkly minimalistic design where only the actor’s body and facial expressions are highlighted, this production showcases a powerful exploration of contemporary state ideologies and apparatuses.
• Designed and executed to be an incisive and unignorable critique of the malignant indifference and corruptions inherent in today’s state machinery, Masks unmasks the intolerable realities of contemporary society – wherein violence against women and minorities are routinely protested against and then quickly forgotten in favour of maintaining the status quo.
• Featuring certain prescient moments that depict the grim picture of our times, Masks fearlessly asks the audience to ponder over how and why the state brushes away crimes against humanity to garner votes, protect the powerful, and soothe the masses under a false sense of security.
• With nothing but tranformed physical scores sourced from a wide range of movement repertoires such as Kudiyattam, Hip-Hop, Bollywood, Kalaripayattu, and the Ballet, the actor in Masks traverses through time and space to bring to the audience the harsh truth of human existence – that every one every where is wearing a mask to hide an ugly countenance that they do not want the world to see. And at its peak, Masks presents to us the seedy underbelly of the state and society through glaring tableaux and motifs and forces us to reckon with the unmasked, naked face of today’s power systems.