MUMBAI: Award-winning play – Shikhandi is back at NCPA. It grabbed the runner-up prize at the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards 2016 along with Best Play at the Laadli Media Awards 2017, and Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actor (Female) at META 2018. The play will be staged on the 2nd & 3rd of December 2022.
Running since the year 2016, for more than 5 years, the mythological magic brings back with a comic, tongue-in-cheek retelling of the story of Shikhandi. The play presents a mixture of traditional and contemporary thereby questioning maleness, femaleness, and everything in between in a comical style.
The Play is written and directed by Faezeh Jalali who found the character interesting while going through a story of the Mahabharata, says ,”The story talks about how Shikhandi, one of the earliest trans characters known in mythology, was meant to be born male to avenge an insult in her past life as Amba. But the bigger karmic game unfolds when she is reborn as female, raised as male, has a sex change on her wedding night, thanks to a Yaksha, and finally fulfils her destiny—to be the cause of Bhishma’s death.”
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The play is brought to life by the immensely talented cast which includes Abhishek Saha, Akash Ghosalkar, Faezeh Jalali, Junaid Khan, Karan Desai, Meher Acharia-Dar, Srishti Shrivastava, and Tushar Pandey/Nakul Bhalla.
Prep yourselves for the award-winning mythological comedy of In-Betweens
If you haven’t already, it’s time you met Shikahndi.
Shikhandi – The Story of the In-Betweens
English Play (with some Hindi – 90 mins)
Venue Experimental Theatre
Friday, 2nd December – 7.30 pm &
Sunday, 3rd December – 5.00 pm & 7.30 pm
An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with FATS theArts Productions
This is a comic, tongue-in-cheek retelling of the story of Shikhandi. Mixing the traditional with the contemporary, the play questions maleness, femaleness and everything in between. Shikhandi is perhaps one of the earliest trans characters known in mythology. Shikhandi was meant to be born male to avenge an insult in her past life as Amba. But the bigger karmic game unfolds when she is reborn as female, raised as male, has a sex change on her wedding night, thanks to a Yaksha, and finally fulfils her destiny—to be the cause of Bhishma’s death.
The play was a runner-up at the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards 2016. Shikhandi was also awarded Best Play at the Laadli Media Awards 2017, and Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actor (Female) at META 2018.
Written & Directed by Faezeh Jalali
Cast: Abhishek Saha, Akash Ghosalkar, Faezeh Jalali, Junaid Khan, Karan Desai, Meher Acharia-Dar, Srishti Shrivastava & Tushar Pandey/Nakul Bhalla
Music: Percussion: Sriram
Violin: Shalaka Deshpande
Vocals: Anadi Nagar
Suggested age: 15+
Box Office: Book your tickets here
