Bengaluru-based playwright and director Shatarupa Bhattacharyya’s Silvatein – The Wrinkles in Time, a play about a couple who recall their relationship differently, has now moved from stage to page. Originally written in English and translated into Hindi by Puneet Gupta, the play has found a new form — one that can be revisited long after the curtain falls. In a chat with Bangalore Times, Shatarupa sheds light on what led her to turn the play into a book, the challenges she faced, and more. Excerpts:
‘I wanted the writing to have a NEW life’
“Silvatein has lived through the voices and bodies of its actors, but a performance lasts only as long as we are together in that room. I wanted the writing to have a life between shows, and to reach people who may never get to see the stage play. The book also lets readers pause, return to a line, and sit with the different versions of the past that Rupali (played by Ujani Ghosh) and Arijit (played by Sagnik Sinha) offer. What I most wanted to retain was the play’s uncertainty. On stage, the characters give that uncertainty its silences, glances and rhythms. The book cannot capture those moments exactly, but I hope the dialogue leaves room for readers to imagine them and to keep questioning what they think they know about these two people,” shares Shatarupa.
‘The book gives readers the freedom to interpret the story’
Shatarupa says the book offers readers a different relationship with the story, one not bound by the pace of a live performance or the actors’ interpretations. “As a reader, you can go back to an earlier exchange after hearing what Rupali or Arijit says later. You can notice small contradictions, or spend more time with silence before turning the page. It invites you to ask where your sympathies changed and why,” she says.
