Writing Science Fiction Plays for the Indian Stage

Writing Science Fiction Plays for the Indian Stage Script Reading and Conversation with Meghna Roy Choudhury and Abhishek Majumdar, moderated by Anmol Vellani Thursday, 26th November, 5.00 p.m. - 7.00 p.m.About the ConversationAfter reading excerpts from their science fiction plays, two playwrights will converse on the nature of science fiction; why they chose to write speculative plays for the Indian stage; and whether they have been inspired or influenced by earlier Indian plays and performances in this genre. We will learn from them if writing science fiction for the theatre poses unique challenges. They will reference their own plays to demonstrate that science fiction is not a form of free-floating fantasy; it can, for instance, address moral dilemmas and ask searching questions about the political tendencies of our times.Script Reading:Juno 77By Abhishek MajumdarIn Juno 77, a woman disappears during a space mission. Her partner’s search takes him far beyond Earth, where time unsettles everything they believed they knew about love, duty, and family. When their paths cross again, each has lived differently and in different references of time since the separation. How should they now understand their obligations to one another?Against this story, Juno 77 asks questions at the heart of moral philosophy. Does an intention matter more than its consequences? Can someone be held to a promise in circumstances no one could have imagined? What does it mean to forgive a person whose absence has shaped your entire life?The play also considers how religion helps us live with such questions. Faith offers ways to think about time, sacrifice, suffering and the possibility of reunion. Yet those ideas can mean different things to people who have endured the same loss differently. Bringing space science into conversation with religious thought, Juno 77 asks how we make moral choices when our shared understanding of a life has come apart. It seeks to examine the question of whether our loves and losses are meaningful or mere coincidence.Written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar, the play will be produced by Nalanda Arts Studio in Kannada and Hindustani versions.The Archive on the Wall By Meghna Roy ChoudhuryThe Archive on the Wall is a science fiction play inspired by holographic principle theory that explores memory, scientific thought, and political erasure, set inside a crumbling flat in contemporary Mumbai.After her mother’s death, Aparna, a physicist turned archivist, returns to her childhood home to sort through her belongings. While scanning the old walls for data, she discovers that one wall retains more than structural history. It reacts. It hums. It remembers.As the house approaches demolition, Aparna uncovers fragments of her mother’s political past, her own repressed memories, and traces of violence that were meant to disappear. She must confront what the wall has preserved and what she has chosen to forget.The play asks what remains when history is erased, and whether memory can become an act of resistance.About the ParticipantsAbhishek MajumdarAbhishek Majumdar is a writer and director, working across theatre, novels, essays, film and opera. He is the Program Head and Arts Professor of Theater at NYU Abu Dhabi and Artistic Director of Nalanda Arts Studio, Bengaluru. His work has been produced and commissioned by leading theatres of the world, including the Royal Court Theatre (London), Prithvi Theatre (Mumbai), Ranga Shankara (Bengaluru), Deutsch Shauspielhaus (Hamburg), Ruhrfestspiele (Recklinghausen), Théâtre du Soleil (Paris), National Theatre (London) and San Francisco Opera.Beyond theatre-making, he is deeply committed to training younger playwrights and directors and curating diverse voices to contribute to a theatre of ideas.Meghna Roy Choudhury Meghna Roy Choudhury is a theatre director, playwright and actor trained at Drama School Mumbai. She holds a Master’s degree in Physics and has trained extensively in Bharatanatyam. Her practice brings together performance, autobiography, history and scientific inquiry to create contemporary theatrical work.She has also received the Tendulkar Dubey Fellowship (2025), and the Niloufer Sagar Alumni Production Grant (2024, 2025). Her recent productions include The Apology, Kheyechish? and Kadambari, which received multiple nominations at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) 2026. She is also the Project Lead and Curator for Third Bell, The Drama Library at Bhasha Centre, where she works on developing and commissioning contemporary Indian-language theatre. She is currently directing the play Enough by Stef Smith.About the FestivalPLAYINTERPLAY is a theatre festival with a difference. It celebrates 50 years of the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, bringing together its theatre awardees and scholars to show their work, share their experiences, skills and learnings, and converse on matters of common interest.PLAYINTERPLAY presents plays that are new to Bengaluru. What is different, however, is that it looks back as well as forward, featuring a work of theatre that has been specially revived for the festival and readings of plays that are still to become the finished article.PLAYINTERPLAY does more: it forges connections between its constituent parts — performances, workshops, conversations and experience sharing — emphasising the interplay between thought, learning and practice.See the plays! Apply for the workshops! Join the conversations! Soak in the magic of theatre.About the Artistic DirectorAnmol Vellani is the founder and former executive director of India Foundation for the Arts, the first independent philanthropic organisation in India devoted exclusively to supporting the arts. He is also the co-founder of Toto Funds the Arts, which nurtures, encourages and rewards new voices and emerging talent in the arts.Anmol did not, however, aspire to become a professional in the field of philanthropy. His early fascination was with the arts, especially theatre and music, and also philosophy, which he studied at the Universities of Poona, Oxford and Cambridge. He taught ethics, logic and the history of philosophy at Elphinstone College, Mumbai, in the 1970s,His writing and talks — on arts entrepreneurship, the creative economy, cultural policy, the role of grant-making foundations, culture and development, arts collaboration and the performing arts, for example — have reflected on the insights he has gleaned from his long engagement with the arts and philanthropy.Anmol has been associated with nearly 50 plays as a director, designer or actor. He has directed theatre productions in different languages and cities. His last two plays — Innocence (2024) and Apne Ghar Jaisa (2022) — have been lauded for their sharp and critical look at contemporary social and political realities in India.