RAMESH AAKHI RAAT

This two-part production covers the best work of the late Gujarati poet, Ramesh Parekh, and has been adapted for stage by Mihir Bhuta.

Meera, as the title suggests, is a 'musical', describing the life of the saint poet, who, despite being married to the Rana of Mewar, believed she was already one with Lord Krishna. Her devotion and her final act of stepping out of home, wedlock and a narrow sense of self to merge with the Lord, is well expressed through the Meera bhajans used by the playwright. The play incorporates palace politics and the Rana's growing sense of an extraordinary truth emerging before his eyes. The truth will cuckold him, but also set him free.

Directed by Mihir Bhuta.

Ala Khhachar, takes a humorous, sad look at Parekh's famous fictional character by the same name, a Don Quixote of sorts, who hardly ever stirs from his four-poster bed, getting by on the illusion of plenty even as his feudal world has long since disappeared. He writes love poems to his muse, Sonal. Living off his servants' charity, Ala's laid-back world view does have its moments of sorrow.

Directed by Darshan Jariwala.