The Gujral Foundation was delighted to support Serendipity Arts Foundation’s experiential theatrical production ‘The Money Opera’
Created and directed by Amitesh Grover, the play was commissioned by Serendipity Arts for Serendipity Arts Festival 2022.
The Money Opera was an immersive theatre production created as a site-specific project. Housed in an abandoned building, it contained songs and stories of ambition, guilt, fear, desire, love, and community that revealed the nature of contemporary society.
Audiences entered the building and spent time with characters — played by actors and real life professionals — in a dystopian universe. They met a young billionaire, a ghost, an inheritor, a landlord, a child goddess, a thief, a poet, a stock-broker, a rebel, an explorer, and several others, who hammered at society’s facade and told us about the extent to which they go to survive in, trump, or fight against the system.
Like the free-market economy, this was a free-wheeling theatre, where the audience chose what they watched, how they watched it, but were in little control of what occurred inside the building. The fiction of money bound the universe of this show, weaving complex narratives concerning the precarious position of people at the margin, and a few at the centre, revealing what they kept hidden, oppressed, and buried in money.
Cast & Crew
Writer: Sarah Mariam | Scenographer: Asim Waqif | Chief Assistant Director: Sarthak Narula | Set Designers: Garima Aggarwal Roy & Anindya Roy | Assistant Director: Vishnupad Barve | Show Producer & Project Manager: Tanvi Shah | Costume Designer: Gurpreet Sidhu | Light Designer: Vikrant Thakar | Sound Designer: Akash Sharma | Ensemble Music Composer: Riddhiman Dutta | Production Design Assistant: Asavari Gurav | Production Assistant: Shravan Naik | Light Operator: Omkar Hazare | Sound Engineer: Amir Noronha | Sound Technician: Ravi Jadhav | Show Photographer: Radhika Agarwal | Graphic Designer: Chandan Crasta | Film: Vaibhav Raj Shah
Performers: Akanksha Devaprakash, Anish Albuquerque, Jitu Rabha, Mamata D. Verlekar, Manoj Thapar, Padmashree Josalkar, Pradip Sarmokadam, Raghunath Chari, Riddhiman Dutta, Shivpranav D. Alavani, Silpi Dutta, Snehalata Tagde, Sumali Khaniwale, Suvrat Joshi, and Vishnupad Barve.
Created & Directed by Amitesh Grover
Original content by Shivpranav Damodar Alavani, Dr. Aninda Mazumdar (Oceanographer), Anish Albuquerque (Financial Advisor), Mamata Deepak Verlekar (Poet), and Dr. Pradip Sarmokadam (Ecologist). Music and Songs by respective performers.
Languages: Hindi, English, Marathi, Konkoni, Kannada, Bhojpuri
Duration: 3 hrs.
Dates: 23rd September to 8th October 2023
Show Timings: Show 1: 6.30PM - 8.00PM | Show 2: 8.00PM - 9.30PM
Venue: The Factory at Okhla | D149, Okhla- Phase 3, New Delhi, India.