What is common between an annual Lobster festival held in Maine in the United States and an all women's vendor market Ema Keithel in Imphal in Manipur
Lucky Lobster
What is common between an annual Lobster festival held in Maine in the United States and an all women's vendor market Ema Keithel in Imphal in Manipur? City-based playwright Swar Thounaojam also from Manipur, found enough similarities between an essay titled Consider the Lobster by author David Foster Wallace in which he questioned the culture of boiling a crustacean to death and then celebrating the eating of it and a women's vendor market in Imphal, a so called fine example of female empowerment, and a matriarchal society prevalent in Manipur but is actually a puppet of political parties in the state. 
Still from the English play Luck Lobster Pic/Amit Bansal
In her new project Lucky Lobster, Swar will be presenting an art installation from her experience of this market and then lead the audience into a full fledged play. Supported by the Robert Bosch Art Grant 2010, Lucky Lobster comprises eight actors who will bring to the stage the tales and angst of women traders from Imphal. In an email interview, Swar told us about how her grandmother being a vendor at the Ema Keithel was inspiration for the play, how she found similarities between a faraway Lobster festival in Maine and a women's market in Imphal and why she thinks that the audience need not necessarily identify with her play.
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Tell us about the Lucky Lobster Project? How did the Robert Bosch Grant come about?
The idea for the project has been in my head for quite sometime, partly because I have a personal interest in it. My grandmother was a vendor in Ema Keithel - the market which is at the core of Lucky Lobster. The workings of the market and its stories have always intrigued me. Another thing that I am personally invested in is the collective empowerment image of the market. Collectively, they have been lauded for their empowerment and activism. But there has always been a degree of veiled sexism in the glorification of the Meitei trader women as the torch bearers of a broken state. Majority of the women vendors have no individual voice. The market politics is run by a handful of women leaders who are in turn controlled by political parties and insurgent groups.u00a0 So, I submitted a proposal to the Robert Bosch Art Grant 2010 when they sent out their call for applications; stating how I would like to investigate the paradox of this market place as a research project that would lead to a theatrical production.
Why the name Lucky Lobster? How did you conceive of this project?
Firstly, because it sounds nice. Secondly, it is closely linked to the essay Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. In the essay (which he wrote for Gourmet magazine), he talks about this gigantic lobster festival which is a big tourist attraction in the States. And he starts asking many uncomfortable questions about the culture of eating lobsters. While I was thinking through the project, I kept re-reading his essay. And his concerns echoed mine too. What is this culture of celebrating the strength of the vendor women of Ema Keithel while solidly refusing to acknowledge or understand their lives and workings? Many of us Manipuris export the image of the market as the hotbed of economic, political and social activism. But hardly any of us bother to question the impulse driving this export - the impulse that is closely linked to the questionable projection of women as protectors to serve the pride of a community.
How and why do you think an audience sitting in Bangalore will identify with a womens' market set up in Imphal?
I am not that worried about identification. As an audience member, I don't go to watch a movie or a play to identify with the story or its characters. I go to watch it on its on terms and hope it will show me a different perspective or heighten my sensibility or take me to a completely different world that forces me to examine my own world. I am sure Bangalore has the audience keen to watch a play on its own terms.
Explain the process of how you will take the audience through the project at Ranga Shankara?
We are using a completely different entry. Ranga Shankara has been generous with us, allowing us to experiment with audience entry. The entry will immediately plunge the audience into the installation, leading them to the stage where the actors are already part of the installation. Gates open at 7:10 pm and we are encouraging the audience to come in early and spend more time on the stage.
Can you give us a sneak peak into the installation part of your project?
The installation is the work of four of us: Avinash Kuduvalli, Poorna Swami, Neelima PA and me. The installation uses and transforms materials I have collected during my research trips. It uses videos I shot, sights I saw in the market, materials used by the vendors, contributions from people who helped me during my research and photographs taken by Deepika Arwind who assisted me in the second part of the research trip.
What do you think will be the highlight of this performance?
Highlight of the performance is the sensitivity with which eight urban performers have handled the stories of a world that is completely alien to them and of which they have no first-hand information. The imagination they use to bring life to the text of Lucky Lobster is not of a conventional format.
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born and brought up in Imphal. I studied in Delhi and came to Bangalore in 2004 to work for Ranga Shankara. While at RS, I wrote a one act play that got selected for the Writers Bloc Festival, 2007, run by Royal Court Theatre, London and Rage, Mumbai. That was the beginning of my playwriting. After that, I lived for two years in Munich where I did theatre. Then came back to Bangalore. Then I was selected by the Royal Court Theatre to be part of their Summer Residency for Emerging Playwrights, 2010. I also got the Robert Bosch Art Grant the same year. Now I work at India Foundation for the Arts - a grant-making organisation based in the city.
Where Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
On June 25, 7.30 pm
Call 9632506195 Log on to www.indianstage.in and www.bookmyshow.com
For Rs 100
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