Do You Know This Song?
A woman has lost her voice, she is no longer heard. In the second part of a trilogy about grief and mourning, Mallika Taneja dives deep into the past, searching for a voice lost many years ago. Navigating the trenches of loss and grief, she wades through long-forgotten stories to unearth a life that vanished… a voice ingrained in the memory of those who had heard it… but the song – disappeared.
With puppets, a harmonium, and a microphone, Do You Know This Song? recalls a past that keeps trying to speak to a present. The piece explores the potential of song to retrieve, hold and transform memories and loss into a larger shared space. The artist sings and invites people to join her.
Artist Talk on Sat 15.06. following the performance. In English.
lives and works in New Delhi, India. Through performances, installations and curatorial work, she explores questions of gender, solidarity, pleasure, rest and remembering. She is particularly interested in the political possibilities of performative ensembles and the role songs play in leaving and gathering traces of people, places and things. Some of her works and collaborative spaces include Be Careful, Allegedly, Rest of the Struggle, Zanana ka Zamana, Women Walk at Midnight and Sex Chat Room. For Do You Know This Song? Mallika Taneja was awarded Best Actor at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards 2024.
Credits
Performance, artistic direction, original text Mallika Taneja Dramaturgy Hansa Thapliyal Lighting design Sangeet Shrivastava Sound design Chayan Adhikari, Bindhumalini N Scenography Sangeet Shrivastava with Hansa Thapliyal, Vijay Kate, Tanuj Arora Text collaboration Rajesh Nirmal Production Aman Mohammadi, Drishti Chawla Doll makers Hansa Thapliyal, Aman Mohammadi, Drishti Chawla Songbook design Bindhumalini N Tailoring Muzammil, Praveen Kumar Subtitle and tour managing Sophia Kaushik Developed at Shed 9, New Delhi and Sahyande Theatre, Kerala With the voices of Banwari Taneja, Bindhumalini N, Chayan Adhikari, Kajal Ghosh, Nadeera Zaheer Babbar, Sudha Thapliyal, Suhasini Taneja, Sunanda Achar The piece is based on interviews and conversations with Banwari Taneja, Elizabeth Achar, Geetika Thapliyal, Hansa Thapliyal, Kajal Ghosh, Maude Gonsalves, Nadira Zaheer Babbar, Nandini Guha Rajagopal, Oona Gupta, Raj Babbar, Sudha Thapliyal, Suhasini Taneja, Sunanda Achar Co-production The WEB network (La Maison de la danse CDCN Uzès Gard Occitanie, WPZimmer, Beursschouwburg, Black Box Teater, Tanzquartier Wien, Frascati Productions, LES SUBS – Lyon, Points communs – Nouvelle Scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise/Val d’Oise), Kaserne Basel, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Nationaltheater Mannheim, SPIELART Theaterfestival
In English and Hindi with English surtitles