Rani of Jhansi meets Joan of Arc

After entertaining audience with productions like Crack: Two Lives, Two Addictions. One End; Deathtrap, Crystal Anniversary; and an adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Artistes Studio is back with their latest thespian project, Beyond Bling.

After entertaining audience with productions like Crack: Two Lives, Two Addictions. One End; Deathtrap, Crystal Anniversary; and an adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Artistes Studio is back with their latest thespian project, Beyond Bling.

It's an exuberant fairy tale that will bring together popular protagonists from literature, history and music, including Beethoven, Joan of Arc, Rani of Jhansi and Don Quixote, to name a few. The two-hour play also features six original compositions.

"The expectation from this production is to make people face a very important question: Where do you draw the line when it comes to material acquisition?" says Yashwant Singh, director, Beyond Bling. The core value of the production focuses on the brutal realities of today's teenagers and kids who are blinded by the 'mall culture'.

"The immediate thought, from where the concept of Beyond Bling was born, was a concern for today's children. Their world view and immediate view were one and the same - a tiny 2x2 palm-sized gizmo. We felt the need to advise these children to raise their gaze to farther horizons," adds Singh.

It took the production team two months to out together the drama that also sharply criticises the muzzling of the press, the curb on our freedoms of thought and expression. "You must watch out for the songs - Why Does it Happen to Me?, The Sheen of Bling and The House of Books," says Salone Mehta, writer, Beyond Bling.