Theatre of life over a phone call

Creative expressions find a way even in the toughest of times. One example is Lifeline 99 99, an interactive play, by Delhi-based Kaivalya Plays, that takes place over a phone call.

Creative expressions find a way even in the toughest of times. One example is Lifeline 99 99, an interactive play, by Delhi-based Kaivalya Plays, that takes place over a phone call. Directed by Akshay Raheja and Gaurav Singh, the cast includes Nikie Bareja, Raghav Seth, Kumar Abhimanyu and Ramita Menon and is supported by Thespo’s Audio-Torium, an initiative that encourages audio-based performances by theatre-makers under 25 years old.

Gaurav Singh
Lifeline 99 99 is an absurd telephone line that interrogates the greed and alienation of human experiences. The audience can call a phone number, where an IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) asks them questions about their preference for an experience. Based on their responses, a few minutes later, they get a call back. “In this one-on-one conversation, the caller according to their preference speaks to a conflicted sex chat operator or an aggrieved idealist or a dude alien or a dead insurance agent or art itself, personified.

Each performance is unique as it relies on the real-time participation of the audience member,” says Singh, while adding, “This 30-minute show has been in development over the last six months and is supported by Thespo, India’s youth theatre initiative. This is not a pre-recorded audio play but one where the audience listens, responds and interacts with live actors over the phone.” About the show that is packed with fundamental philosophical questions of these current times, Raheja who is also the writer of the plays, says, “Potentially, theatre exists in every live human interaction.

It is the role of an audience in a breathing performance, how their understanding, trust and expectation changes the performance and the actors in real-time. It was a conscious decision to restrict this interactive play to a one on one performance, which retains the life of a theatrical experience over a digital medium.”

ON: March 20, 21 Shows at 6:00pm, 7:00pm and 8:00pm Booking at: bit.ly/ lifeline9999