'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' by Mark Haddon became an international bestseller and was longlisted for the Man Booker (now just Booker Prize) in 2003. The story of a teenaged boy, Christopher, with Asperger's who gets drawn into solving a murder mystery with maths, maps and timetables, it has come in for some criticism lately - partly because Haddon did not do much research into autism before writing and partly because the language used in the book is considered unsuitable for its teen readers. Having said that, the story of Christopher and his quest to find out who killed his neighbour's dog continues to be adapted for stage in multiple countries - among the latest such, is a production by Australia's Belvoir theatre company. In India, Maharashtra-headquartered The Company Theatre (TCT) probably started working on its own production of the play before the Australian company. TCT, led by Atul Kumar, places the story in Mumbai - the lead character's sleuthing takes him from Bandra to Cuffe Parade. Kumar's Indian take on Simon Stephen's 2012 Tony Award-winning adaptation of the story for stage opened in Mumbai in November 2024, as part of the seventh Aadyam Theatre Festival. The play is travelling to Delhi for three shows on the weekend of January 11-12, 2025. In an interview over video call, Atul Kumar talked about his adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays ('Piya Behrupiya', 'Khwab Sa'), why he chose this story for stage, how he reimagines plays for the Indian stage, why he's excited about the potential of virtual reality and artificial intelligence for theatre, why Indian theatre's cultural economy is very different from American Broadway or England's West End, and where to find India's equivalent of the SoHo theatre scene in Mumbai, "if we must make the comparison". Edited excerpts:
You are working with a Tony-winning adaptation of a pretty successful book, at a time when global content is fairly easily available in India. What were some of the considerations and challenges for you?
This book actually is not a new book. And yes, it's sold many, many copies in India as well. Overall, more than 10 million actually. It has a very international appeal across cultures. It is also a story which can easily be associated with, because it talks about people on the spectrum, especially children on spectrum, so it's something that people from all around the world experience.
I think with the advent of technology and globalization, what has happened perhaps is that the popularity of the book has increased exponentially - the popularity of literature travelled much slower earlier. I would say that's something that probably has happened. But I think as far as the content is concerned, it concerns all of us, and it is not specific to any culture or any particular country. So it was easy to adapt, easy to associate with.
And why this story; is there added pressure to pick the right story when you do so many shows of each play and the production costs involved?
Whenever we pick up a theatre production to do, the aim is to be able to do as many shows as possible and to make it reach as large an audience as possible across the different subcultures of India, different languages and communities of India. So that is something we set out to do any which way, and this is what I do, this is my job, this is where all my time and investment anyway goes. So it's nothing new; that's what the aim is when one is making any play, in fact.
But how am I associated with the content of this play? It's very personal to me because although I have not had anybody in my family directly on the spectrum, I have had friends and I know people who have had kids who are on the spectrum and suffer the so-called reaction of the society around them because they are usually ostracized - people in distant family or friends, they would always be in denial when somebody had a condition like this boy in the story - Asperger's syndrome, for example.
What I saw in the book when I read it was not so much someone on the autism spectrum, but someone with a difference. Somebody who reacted to the reality around him in a very different way, who thought and saw and heard the world in a very different way. This difference is something that excited me, that I identified with because as I grew up, I experienced that I was very different from many people in different situations, and many of those situations actually questioned my identity. I often felt cornered. I often felt very low, small. To fight all that, I then took on roles that took on the differences of power, differences when it came to gender, for example, with how I reacted, how I behaved, how I was with women in my lives, for example. Or even larger than that, my class, I come from a very privileged upper class Hindu class. How was I placed in my society vis-a-vis the so-called others who were different from me. So all these realizations played out when I was reading the story of a boy who was very different from others and how he excelled in so many ways, how he was accepted in so many ways, how he achieved so much in spite of being not slotted as one of everyone else. So that difference is what really excited me, and all of us experience at some point or the other that we are different from everybody else. We are unique. And sometimes that plays out in not so good ways. And sometimes of course it becomes an asset. So, for me, it was just an exploration in that zone, in that field, in that understanding. And I have interpreted the story as well, when we rehearsed and we adapted it to Indian situation.
You've opened the play as part of the Aadyam Theatre Festival Season 7, which is an Aditya Birla Group initiative. What is your arrangement with them?
Aadyam actually produces the play, which means they pay for all that is required to make the play and in return they ask for first nine shows of the production. Six of them were in Bombay and three in Delhi. So that's the deal with them. After the ninth show, the production belongs to me, and I can run it for as long as I want. This is what we did when we first did 'Detective Nau Do Gyarah' for them and then last year we did 'Baaghi Albele' for them - after the nine shows, these productions belong to us. 'Baaghi Albele' has done close to 50 shows now and hopefully this one will too. So that's how its arranged.
A still from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, featuring Dheer Hira, Jaimini Pathak, Dilnaz Irani, Shivani Tanksale, Salone Mehta, Harssh Singh, Abhay Kaul and Vidushi. (Image via The Company Theatre)
For many years The Company Theatre was adapting Shakespeare's plays to the Indian stage, and became associated with productions of Piya Behroopiya, Hamlet starring Vinay Pathak and As You Like It with Kalki Koechlin in one of the lead roles. Has that image been hard to shake?
Yeah, it's true that there was a phase in the middle when I was working with Rajat Kapoor and we had done Hamlet and King Lear. Then I did Twelfth Night as Piya Bherupiya and I did Midsummer Night's Dream as Khwab Sa, and people started associating us with Shakespeare. Probably they were some of our most popular productions as well and that is why our name got associated with Shakespeare. But well, you know, that's for audiences and press and all these people to decide. We do what we really feel excited about and what comes our way. Now I am now thinking again to pick up Macbeth, for example, at some point, and I have always wanted to do Romeo and Juliet. But then I also want to do 10,000 other theatre productions based on other kinds of literature, other forms - I am very excited about artificial intelligence. I am very excited about introducing cinema on stage. I am very excited about contemporary movement. People do get associated with one or two things that become more successful. But I like to experiment, and do challenging things where one is not complacent.
What about AI has got you excited?
I think it's a slow move towards AI. Virtual reality for me comes before artificial intelligence because VR has already created devices and platforms where theatre can be experienced.
Some of these productions are like a combination of virtual reality as well as real-real. These are basically performances that I have seen around the world which I went for as an audience member.
And then there are things that I have read about, about how in a live performance, in a site-specific production, the audience actually participates. It's immersive, so they (the viewers) actually get into the production. The audience moves in different spaces, and they are given headsets. And at times the headsets are taken away. So, there are live actors in front of them, and then they are given headsets and they are transported to a different reality. So, it is a combination of the two things (tech and human performance).
But well, the future could be that slowly the live actor completely disappears (laughs). Who knows? And the whole thing (production) is played out and planned on laptops and experienced as virtual reality. I think that then goes into another form of art completely; it goes more into visual arts.
And frankly, after that, to imagine holograms moving, things projected on screens all around you, on you, I think the possibilities are immense. I am very excited about what artificial intelligence can do because here (in plays) we are talking about human emotions and human condition, and how that is placed against robots and robotics and what can that do to the reality of a human being or the new reality of human beings, let's say, it's something which I find very challenging and exciting to explore. I mean, all these various emotions, you know, when you talk of Shakespeare, we know that he addressed possibly each and every human emotion possible. And in this different plays, you explore different things. But now if artificial intelligence comes in, how will those emotions play out is something that excites me immensely.
Are you already using AI in your productions, maybe for devising music or doing a little bit of scriptwriting or editing/tweaking?
We are using it to create our posters, I will be very frank - to create image. We have also used it a little bit in this production - 'Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' for our projections. Some of the projections, we have used artificial intelligence to create. These days there are so many devices and so many platforms and apps that can do this for you. So it is not a very difficult thing to create, but only to that level. I know that this is just scratching the surface. I have to go deeper into understanding - philosophically - what this is doing to art, what this is doing to humanity, so that we can explore what virtual reality or artificial intelligence can actually do to performing arts.
You mentioned bringing cinema on to the theatre, too... Now, there are so many different ways of creating and consuming content, and one wonders about the place of live theatre performances as a source of spectacle and entertainment in this broader framework?
Things are obviously constantly changing, and these days even faster because of mobility. One is because of travel. Second, because of education that is now easier around the world. But most of all because of Internet, because information is available. Now when I say cinema on stage, I am talking of a very particular form of theatre which is called live cinema. So that's a form - it's not new - it's just that I want to use multiple live cameras on stage or in a black box where audiences are sitting and watching a theatre production, but all the actors have access to cameras. Cameras can move from one place to the other. They can come in close or go far for different kinds of magnification. There are wires, of course, running all over the floor. There are multiple projections and its live sports editing. So you choose how you want to show what, to what size, where you want to project what - on people's bodies, on backdrops, on people's suitcases, on a table, on a chair, on the audience - you can project anything anywhere. Actors are actually doing this live on stage. So it is a very nice medium.
Like, you and I are talking on this platform right now and we can only hear each other. But if I was to just do this (turns on video and brings his close enough to the webcam that first his face is in focus), now you can see me. And now I can play with you (moves forward till just his right eye is visible on the screen). And I can do literally like this (waves his hand in front of the camera). But while I am doing all this, on my left-hand side, there is a live audience that is sitting. They can also see me. Let's say now there's a dramatic dialogue. Now, the audience can also see me do all this with you on the camera. But this projection, on which you are seeing my face, they can also see that in the background, perhaps literal, perhaps cleated, perhaps upside down, perhaps in a negative form, perhaps just a hologram, perhaps just a 3D version of this face that you are seeing. So what I am saying is that all these possibilities are now available to us and I can switch off my camera and then you can switch on yours or I can give you my camera moving. There are immense possibilities, absolutely immense possibilities, and the audience sees that happening in front of them. So theatre and cinema fuse, and what it can give, God only knows - that is to be explored.
Are you already working on something like this?
I have a very strong desire to explore the life and works of Charlie Chaplin in this form, where I want to explore his life, his works, his childhood and specially all the controversy that came up after the Me-Too movement about all these great artists. Because he has always been my Dronacharya - we have learnt so much from him. He has always been an inspiration. He was an entertainment as a child and I understood his cinema. It was a great filmmaker and what a performer he was himself. He made a film like 'The Great Dictator' during the war; he was political. And then, of course, his reputation went for a six because of misuse of power. And then his relationships with women and his multiple marriages and all the controversies around that...
I will probably have many different people play Chaplin, so it will not be Chaplin in his iconic form with a hat and a moustache and a cane and shoes. Perhaps you will never see that ever in my play. I want to see if I can use a young girl, a woman, a handicapped person who's able in a different way - all of them exploring this.
You mentioned you're excited about the possibility using AI in productions. Are you at all concerned that AI could come for your job, or affect you in some meaningful way workwise? For example, there was the Hollywood writers' strike in 2023 to ask for compensation if AI was going to trained on their work and get their future gigs... Or do you feel like making theatre is one of those jobs where AI will never fully replace human directors, human actors?
Frankly, I am not equipped to answer that because I have not really taken a deep-dive into the controversies or the politics or the sociology around it. So it would be immature to say anything actually. I know only this much that I am excited about change. I am excited about AI. It might need more things tomorrow. Sociologically, it could suddenly become something that is harmful, in which case we will explore it in that way. We will then take those stands if it becomes a tool of the privileged, then obviously it has to be fought.
You mentioned your interest in working on Macbeth, you mentioned Charlie Chaplin. Any Indian stories or writers that interest you for future productions?
Yes, absolutely. We also devise our own work. In fact, when I am saying Macbeth, I don't think we will ever play Macbeth as is. Even our other productions - if you saw Piya Behrupiya, for example, we completely made it our own. Even here, 'Curious incident' is turned into a story of a boy in Bandra because I live in Bombay. So his journey from Bandra to Cuff Parade and the community he lives in is the Catholic community here - I was married into that community. I have a daughter who is half-Christian. So it's our story; our adaptation of somebody else's literature.
But having said that, I also really admire the writings of Abhishek Mazumdar, Saira Mariam. These are writers who I really look forward to - perhaps could pick up their work. They write works based on situations and conditions in India. (There) characters and stories (are) from India. Also I am not just limiting myself to written literature because I also take inspiration from visual arts, from music, also contemporary movement. And again, when I am talking of that, I am talking of artists and art created in this country. So yeah, there is a lot of that as well in the future.
Could you give an example of someone in contemporary movement whose work inspires you?
Oh, there are many. But I have collaborated mainly with this one wonderful choreographer-dancer, does a lot of contemporary movement work, called Aseng Borang. She is from Arunachal Pradesh, and she's also done choreography for my last play, Taking Sides, and one that I taught and directed at the National School of Drama - Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' - she choreographed that for me; it had a lot of movement. And recently this one, 'The Curious Incident of the Dog' for Aadyam, she has done the choreography for that. I am excited about exploring movement with her.
But there are also other wonderful choreographers. One is Diya Naidu from Bangalore who now works between Bombay and Bangalore. She is also from Attakkalari in Bangalore. There are others who I am not working directly with, but whose work inspires me, and not only from India but from outside as well.
Aadyam Theatre 2025: Jaimini Pathak and Dheer Hira in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, directed by Atul Kumar.
One last question about performance spaces: Our metros have some legacy performance spaces – like Kamani Theatre in Delhi where you're performing Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time – and some new places with scope for experimental theatre, like the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai. What we don't have is an Indian equivalent of Broadway or West End. How do you see this?
When we talk of Broadway and West End, we are talking of a few different things. One, we are talking of a cultural economy which is very different to the one (in India). In the US and UK, these are industries. In India, theatre is still not that. Some of the most moneyed theatre is still not commercial. One can't live one's life based on that. You know, actors who are acting in these long-running productions on West End and they are contracted, they are running their lives with the money that they earn from these productions, which is something we cannot even think of doing even now (in India).
Personally speaking, it's not the kind of theatre that excites me unless there is something which is off-Broadway - not even off, actually off-off-Broadway - which is experimental and moving and a transformative form of piece of theater which then finds its way to Broadway. And I think that is a hard-earned place for the kind of art that I like and make and associate myself with.
NMACC, of course, has two small theatres which are for experimental plays. So it is a new opportunity for all the theatrewallahs. But just to make a correction in your facts, they do have a theatre which is the Grand Theater, which is better and bigger than some of the best theatres on Broadway and West End... They are bringing plays directly from abroad to be performed here with tickets ranging up to ₹25,000 a seat. It's really a different kind of an audience; I think it's the audience that will buy GBP 100-200 ticket to a show (abroad). Last time I was in London, I think the new Harry Potter show was going on and the tickets were going 250 pounds - the good ones. So these are people who probably travel every month to London and can pay that kind of money there, so they can pay it here. But it is a very different cultural social setup. It is not the kind of theatre we make, do or watch, because simply we can't afford to also.
And I did go to see three or four of these at NMACC with my children; my children loved it and I really, frankly, got terribly bored. I would rather go to Prithvi Theatre or NCPA and watch a much more exciting piece. I mean, that's me. There are people of course who would say, 'Oh my God, we were blown away when we watched the projections or display or the lighting and costume and the set in that play.' Which is fine, because all of us can do with all kinds of theatre. But I think it's a comparison I don't really care about, frankly.
India's theatre is growing again because of technology, travel, mobility, Internet. People are travelling all over the world studying theatre now. Theatre and dramas are introduced much, much more, in many, many schools. There are many more theatre groups all around the country. The folk and classical theatre is slowly finding its way into various festivals in the metros as well. People now are aware of folk and classical theatre. So young theatre practitioners are actually going, seeking education in villages and coming back and using those forms. A place like Mumbai's Aram Nagar has like some 50 small theatres where there is no place to book (for a performance). Every night there are new shows happening. It is like a mini-Soho, if we are to make comparisons.
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