Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan was commissioned as a part of Gender Bender 2016 supported by Goethe Institut Bangalore and Sandbox Collective. Dhwani Vij collaborated with Aagaaz Theatre Trust to develop a 15 minute long piece, which was presented at the festival as a work-in-progress piece. The original piece was devised with two actors - Nagina and Jasmine. With the support of the Refunction Grant by Goethe Insitut Delhi, an hour long show was directed with 4 actors. This year, we plan to re-work this play to reflect the narratives post-pandemic, and in the socio-cultural milieu of the actors and their world. The play explores the actors’ gendered bodies and their relationship with the self, others and public spaces - the piece uses objects, physical theatre, and cartography to devise a thought provoking experience. These stories begin on a random day. These are first hand retellings of day to day in Nizamuddin basti. The spectator is invited to enter the performer's world- through everydayness of the narrative. About the Director: Dhwani Vij is a theatre Director/Performer/Educator, based in Delhi. She holds a Masters degree in Theatre (specialising in Physical Theatre and Performance) from University of London, Royal Holloway College, UK. She has in the past created acclaimed work with eminent theatre masters like Anuraddha Kapoor, Khalid Tyabbji, Maya Rao and Amitesh Grover. She is one of the founding members of a Delhi based drama group, Third Space Collective. Her work with the Collective includes the devised performance "Love, Prufrock", a derivation of T.S Elliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Her Directorial project "Dastaan-e-Bhookh", an acclaimed production based on Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, has won several accolades at Thespo '17. Her latest directorial endeavour was an exploration of Camilo Jose Cela's iconic novel, La Familia Pascual Duarte, for a project in collaboration with the Spanish Cultural Institute in Delhi. Currently she is heading the arts department in Shiv Nadar School (Faridabad).

Testimonials on the play -

“Mired in humour and self-awareness and vim.” - Vikram Phukan, The Hindu

“A dialogue with reality.” - Anuj Kumar, The Hindu

“A gamut of strength and talent.” - Arundhati Nath, Mahindra Theatre Awards