Online plays in the times of lockdown. Here are all the plays you can watch online

While he was in the news for featuring in major films including Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction and Taapsee Pannu’s Rashami Rocket, Priyanshu Painyuli has acted in Lockdown Love that was staged online on April 12.

Even as film shootings came to a halt amid lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, artistes found a way to generate fresh content. While several celebs are hosting chat shows on their social media accounts, a few have taken to creating plays that can be watched online. Popular theatre group Asmita is holding what is touted to be World’s first quarantine theatre festival - ‘Indian College Quarantine Theatre Festival’. In a separate initiative, actor Priyanshu Painyuli has also featured in a play that was performed live

Priyanshu Painyuli has played lead role in a play that was recently staged online.

Titled Lockdown Love and directed by Sheena Khalid, the play stars Shriya Pilgaonkar and Priyanshu in lead roles. The play is adapted from Jonathan Rand’s Check Please and is a modern take on arranged romance in times of a pandemic. It also stars Tanmay Danania, Ashwin Mushran, Kira Narayanan and the director Sheena herself.

Priyanshu said in a press statement, “This was the first of its kind live play to be performed virtually for an audience on Zoom. There was a showcase done for some brands and online companies, to show them this new format of live play. ‘Lock down lovers’ is about love in these pandemic times. It is the story of a guy played by me and a girl played by Shriya, who go on different online dates with random weird people, till they accidentally log into a window where they meet each other and connect.”

A National Herald report quoted Asmita founder Arvind Gour as saying, “We had started our Quarantine online theatre at 7 pm every day when offices, schools and colleges were asked to shut down till March 31. We began showing our masterpieces like Court Martial by Swadesh Deepak and Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions in the evening and the response was tremendous. But after the lockdown ordered by the Prime Minister till April 14 we are working day and night to provide our best productions to people who are forced to stay indoors to fight this unknown enemy.”

Theatres across the UK are also offering online streaming of plays being staged. Theatre Together, a collection over 50 performers and theatre industry professionals are also hosting an online celebration on William Shakespeare’s birthday, April 23.

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