META Perspectives: The Artiste – Haoai (The Eleventh Planet)

Dyuti Ghosh, actor in Haoai (The Eleventh Planet), lets us know about her experiences in Theatre and about META.

1. What is your routine before the performance, backstage?
A. Backstage? Actually I am performing as an actor, on stage, and there are three characters in the play. So, I’m playing one lead character, female character, and, the play explains about the three characters who are coming from mental asylum and they have their personal histories for which they have landed in the mental asylum. They are sort of a group and, they have their individualistic demands and beliefs, but they believe in a group and they believe that they complement each other. So this is the basic plot and they fall in the real world and, most of the time they believe in something that is extraordinary, unreal, very much unreal. But ultimately, they go out in the real world and they face difficulties and consequences of the world.

2. What is the most rewarding experience during a performance?
A. The performance itself is very rewarding, because the play is very unique. I have been acting for the past seven or eight years, but this is one character that is very rare. We all go through different stages of rehearsal, and of different plays. It is not mandatory that we need to to stage the production, we rehearse for our own good. But this character, the character is very huge. There were different shades of the character; sometimes I can say that she wants to enjoy life in various ways like, at some point looking beautiful, and being appreciated, and she wants to enjoy life to the fullest. But she also has some beliefs, she also has some ideals. There is a contradiction between consumer, society and her ideals, they do not always match, and she fights within herself, and also with her friends, who are the two main characters. She always fights with them, she always intrigues them, in various ways. So, the character itself is very much rewarding for me because this is one kind of character that I haven’t even tried before.

3. What has been the most memorable experience for you from your fans or an audience?
A. From an audience, I have different responses after playing this character. We have performed many of our plays in Bangladesh. Each and every year I have visited Bangladesh, particularly Dhaka. So, the people over there, they know me as a dancer, singer and actor also, because most of the musical performances we have done there. So, when I played Haoai in Bangladesh, it was very much unique in it’s context, and also people didn’t expect me, they couldn’t recognise me, first of all, and then they came backstage and they were very much convinced that it was me only. So I got very positive reactions from the audiences, they loved the character, they loved all three characters basically. They have also given me a very much positive, and are of the view that it is very heart touching – the character and the play itself is very such. It touches people of every socio-economic level actually.

4. What are you looking forward to performing in META?
A. I am very much looking forward to this performance, because, we all know that META is an excellence award and there are various entries from throughout the country, and the play got selected. People are coming as an audience to watch all plays, there is a great expectation. Also, I am very thrilled to perform in META, because it is my first time to perform here, and I made it to a huge and very prestigious show. So, I am very thrilled about it.

5. What does META mean to you as a performer?
A. To me, I think it gives you confidence that you have done such a thing that gives meaning to your work. I am a young performer, I can say that it will give me confidence, and it will help me to do better and also, it is giving me a lot of tension right now, we have to go and perform. But I hope that META gives these youngsters and also theatre workers of different genres confidence and gives them the focus. They can give them the right applause for the work that the theatre workers are doing.

Watch the META plays from 6th-10th March! Click here to book tickets.