Step into a world of surprises

At most performances, audiences know what to expect. They’ll be seated across from the stage and have some idea of what’s to come. But at Do You Want Me To Stay

At most performances, audiences know what to expect. They’ll be seated across from the stage and have some idea of what’s to come. But at Do You Want Me To Stay For Anything In Particular? theatre-dance company Shapeshift’s show at G5A, prepare for surprises.

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The audience sits in a circle around the two performers, a dancer and a musician. And what unfolds is genre-defying, combining music and movement with an air of spontaneity, as if the melody and movement stem from fleeting ideas rather than a script.

String music emerges in bursts; its tone sombre and haunting. The dancer’s staccato movements mirror these flashes of sound. The chiaroscuro lighting eerily obliterates parts of the performers, so at times, only a face emerges from the shadows or a stray hand draws the bow across the strings. All these elements, when experienced in tandem, create an unsettling feeling, as if you’re in the presence of something truly unpredictable.

“The performance is a meditation on loss, absence and residual memories; what loss entails, emotionally and physically, and what gets left behind,” says Sujay Saple, artistic director of Shapeshift. His body of work includes similar musically-driven theatrical offerings like the acclaimed Lullaby, Stranger and Agent Provocateur. “We don’t generally talk about these topics because they’re private, but the performers engage with and explore them in a candid fashion, provoking the audience to do so too.”

The show is supported by The Japan Foundation and G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture. It draws from the real-life experiences of the Japanese musician composer and virtual artist, Mitsuaki Matsumoto, who has distorted hearing in his right ear. The condition has inspired his choice of instrument too. It’s fashioned using the remnants of the Japanese Biwa and cello. “I will be improvising on the score in real time, during each performance, in response to the dancer’s moves,” Matsumoto says.

Dancer Mallika Singh collaborates on stage, with dramaturgy by Poorna Swami. “Though the choreography roughly fits into contemporary dance, that definition is limiting,” Swami says. “We set up a bunch of instructions for her to interpret. Whatever naturally came to her body became our material.”

WHAT: Do You Want Me to Stay for Anything in Particular?

WHERE: G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture

WHEN: Ovtober 4-October 13

ENTRY: ₹500 onward