MASKS OF SPICE IDENTITES. (photography: Shaad Qureshi)

 

 MASKS OF EMOTIONS AND POLITICAL REALITIES. (Photography: Shaad Qureshi)

Spice Chronicles - excerpts from the performance in Munich

   The Spice Chronicles

Performance Art with Puppetry and Fragrance by  Varun Narain

                                                                 At 

                                            The Spiel Art Festival 2021

                                                                    Munich

 ‘Nose – Making Sense of Smell’

Curated by Eva Neklyaeva

'Spice Chronicles' - the stories about the history of various spices was performed at the Spiel Art Theatre Festival in Munich with Puppetry, Mask Theatre and Story telling. The performance had an Olfactory component where the story of each spice was accompanied by its fragrance. 

 

 The sense of smell is the first one we use when we are born. Scents trigger emotions and memories. The way we articulate smells and create meanings around them is culturally and socially defined. The performance draws on the richness of recent sociological research on the way scents create osmologies – value systems attributed to smells.

 Acknowledgements ‘Spice Chronicles’:  

Lisa Gilardino.

Marco Cendron

Shaad Qureshi

 Photosynthesis By Moonlight: 

A Performance that attempts to blurt the boundaries between the Human and Plant world - a fantastical exploration based on the pioneering work on plant respond and emotion by the Indian Scientist J.C. Bose.

GISELLE 

THE PUPPET BALLET

Produced and supported by The India Foundation for the Arts, 

CONCEPTUALIZED, DESIGNED, DIRECTED: VARUN NARAIN

CHOREOGRAPHY:  REA KRISHNATRAYE

MUSIC SCORE: CHARLES ADOLPHE ADAMS

AUDIO REARRANGEMENT: GUCCI SINGH RAWAIL

AUDIO REWORK AND MASTERING : MUKUL JAIN

ADDITIONAL TRACKS: SUKHMANI AND HARI

LIGHT DESIGN: GYAN 

visual synopsis:

ACT ONE

 GISELLE IS A SIMPLE VILLAGE GIRL WHO LIVES WITH HER MOTHER

 ON HER WAY TO THE WELL ONE DAY SHE SAW A HANDSOME STRANGER

 THE STRANGER AWOKE IN GISELLE SOMETHING HER CRUEL FIANCE WAS UNABLE TO

 (THE STRANGER WAS ACTUALLY A PRINCE IN DISGUISE - VISITING THE VILLAGE)
GISELLE AND HIM FALL IN LOVE AND DECLAIR THEIR LOVE TO THE UNIVERSE

 THE ROYALS FROM THE PALACE COME SEARCHING FOR THE PRINCE

 A QUEER FORTUNE TELLER GIVES GISELLE A STRANGE SIGN

 REALIZING THAT THE PRINCE IS THE STRANGER - AND THAT HE IS ALREADY  ENGAGED TO A ROYAL - GISELLE'S DREAMS CRASH.

 TO THE REAL WORLD GISELLE DIES - BUT HER STORY CONTINUES

ACT TWO

 IN A REALM BEYOND GISELLE AWAKES TO THE LAWS OF THE AFTER LIFE

 MYRTHA IN OUR PUPPET VERSION IS AN ALL LOVING NURTURING ENERGY

 BUT LOVE DECLARED TO THE UNIVERSE LOOKS FOR ANSWERS
AND ALTHOUGH THE STORY ENDS WITH FORGIVENESS FROM BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF LIFE....IT ALSO BEGINS WITH WHAT IS LIFE AND WHAT IS NOT LIFE.

Young people, Imagination and Puppetry

Duration: 10 day workshop 

for 30 students (aged: 12 - 14) 

At a School in Baroda (Gujrat)